Closet Weirdo
by La Pluie de Sang
Summary: Hasegawa Chisame, tired of all the craziness and the insanity that Mahora Academy has to offer, decided to move out after somehow passing the TokyoU entrance exams with flying colours. Now, guess where she's staying...
1. Meet Hasegawa Chisame

Hello everyone. Well here's my first stab at a LH ffic. Hope you enjoy

Oh yeah, Love Hina and Mahou Sensei Negima are the works of Ken Akamatsu. All I'm doing is using his characters and the setting

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**I: Meet Hasegawa Chisame**

It is midday, sometime in late-March. He doesn't know exactly what the date is, or which day of the week it is for that matter. Ever since he learned of his third failure to enter Tokyo U, Keitaro no longer seems too concerned about keeping track of time. He hoped that his impromptu vacation would at least give him some comfort, but all that brought him was more stress and troubles.

It is his first day back at Hinata Inn since that trip, and he is tired. Keitaro looks up to the curtain which blocks the sunlight from entering the room. He knows that he should be getting back to his job of maintaining the grounds, yet lethargy is weighing him down. He doesn't want to do anything at all. He is disoriented. This is the third time he failed, and he no longer has any sense of direction on what to do next.

Keitaro then hears a grumbling sound.

It was his stomach.

He dreaded this. He knew well that sooner or later, he'd have to get out of his room and face everyone, whether out of hunger, or out of a need to go to the bathroom. He told everyone that he'd make it to Tokyo U, though everyone, including himself, was somewhat aware that chances of that happening was slim. Slim indeed. He's probably thinking that everyone has lost what little respect they had for him…well, maybe except for little Shinobu.

The thought of Shinobu cooking food for everyone was enough to get him out of bed, and step out of his room. Then, he somehow got reminded that it is midday, and Shinobu is most likely at school at this time. He soon regrets the fact that he had stepped out of his room. Then again, Su, Naru, and Motoko are probably also at school at this time, though in Naru's case, this would probably end in the next week or so. With only Kitsune on his case…if she's awake…Keitaro decides to venture into the kitchen.

And so Keitaro enters the kitchen. He looks over at the table, and sees not Kitsune, but his aunt Haruka. Well, he's been gone for about a couple of weeks, and she probably wants to know how his little 'excursion' went.

"Good Morning Aunt Haruka…"

Keitaro receives a knock on the head

"…sorry…Haruka. I guess you want to know what I have been doing the past two weeks, huh?"

"Well, yes, but that can wait later. Right now, I'm here on business concerning the Inn"

Keitaro breathed a sigh of relief for once, even though he usually doesn't like talking about the Inn. Anything to avoid reminding anyone what happened recently, namely his failure, is welcome help.

"I know, I know, I went away for a couple of weeks and neglected the Inn. I swear I'll make it up and resume the maintenance…"

"Keitaro, calm down. I'm not here to reprimand you, at least not yet. Two days ago, I received a fax from your Granny Hina. It seems that you will be having a new resident here."

Haruka handed Keitaro the papers. Keitaro scanned it, hoping the newcomer wouldn't be another wild one like Naru, Motoko, or Su, nor a sleazy one like Kitsune.

"Hasegawa Chisame…formerly of Mahora Academy…will be attending Tokyo University…will be paying so and so yen a month…", mumbled Keitaro.

Then, it suddenly hits him: "SHE'S GOING TO TOKYO U!!!"

"Keitaro, you are missing the important part. As in _you-have-a-new-tenant-and-you-have-to-get-a-room-ready_ kind of thing." Haruka sighs, thinking that Keitaro isn't over his failure from his entrance exam yet.

"Yawn! So you mean Naru passed after all?" grumbled a sleepy looking Kitsune standing by on the kitchen door.

Haruka replied, "I don't think so, but the new tenant did. And apparently, the girl won a scholarship too. Something to do about being in the 99th percentile of the test. Oh well, these details aren't that important."

"Why does everything have to remind me of Todai?" thought Keitaro.

"Anyways, the spare rooms we have are currently being used for storage, for some weird reason. And I definitely know that those stuff belong to the girls since the Inn's stuff are stored in _THE_ Storage Room. So the two of you better start cleaning up before she arrives tonight."

"TONIGHT!?" exclaimed Ketaro and Kitsune.

"Besides, why do I have to get involved in this in the first place?" Kitsune complained.

"Because, the last time I checked, half of those junk are yours." replied Haruka. "Now, get moving!"

Haruka stood, and motioned her way to the front doors as she makes her way back to the Tea Shop.

Keitaro's hungry stomach grumbled. It's going to be a long day ahead of him, even though half of it has already passed.

* * *

Keitaro sighs as he continues the daunting task ahead of him, namely cleaning out one of the so-called 'empty' rooms. Of all the spare rooms in the building, this particular one right across the manager's room (_i.e_. Keitaro's) seemed to have the least amount of boxes of them all. Only 75 per cent full! Kitsune explained that this was probably because this was the room where Granny Hina kept her unused, yet too-precious-to-be-thrown-away belongings.

Keitaro and Kitsune open and check the unlabeled boxes one by one, just to make sure to know whom they belong to. Some old clothes. Some black-and-white-photos. Some weird souvenirs that no one knows what they are. Pictures of Keitaro's father when he was young. Some 'jackpot' (according to Kitsune) pictures of Haruka as a child. Kitsune herself is quite tempted to keep those pictures for herself, but considering that those belong to Granny Hina and she would be getting the beating of a lifetime from both aunt and grandmother if she did so, she opted not to.

The pair then begin to haul the boxes out of the room one by one. Hauling them out of the room was no easy task. The lightest of them were the clothes, then the metals, then the wood. The boxes with books and papers in them, which consisted of half the boxes in the room, were quite deadly on the back. In the end, Keitaro found himself lying flat on the floor, realizing that Kitsune never lifted a finger moving his grandmother's belongings out of the room. Suddenly, he realizes his predicament: Where on earth would he take all these boxes to?

The logical place to put them would be at the Tea Shop, except that with all those heavy boxes and with the little time he has left, it's simply too far away. Oh how he wished he picked some other room instead. At least the junk in those rooms belong to the girls, and they can take their belongings in their respective rooms, or better yet, throw them out if he's feeling evil enough.

The big move to the Tea Shop will have to wait until tomorrow. Right now, he has to fix up and clean up the room.

His stomach growls again. He hasn't eaten ever since he returned the night before. He's decided that it's about time he grabbed a bit to eat. But only if he could get up from his exhaustion first. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, getting ready to get back up.

BAM!

Suddenly, something fell on him. It's warm, and soft, though has a sweaty smell to it. Keitaro opens his eyes, and to his horror, he finds himself underneath and face-to-face with Motoko.

"What are you doing you pervert! Is this your idea of your latest trap to seduce women?"

"No, no, Motoko…I can explain…"

"Justice must be executed. Now prepare to die." Motoko said as she unsheathes her sword.

That got Keitaro back up to his feet. Unfortunately, is now at the receiving end of Motoko's _ki_ attack, and he is running for his life just to avoid it.

* * *

Back at the Tea Shop, Haruka is seated at one of the tables, reading the newspaper. She takes a cigarette, taps it on the ashtray, and puts it back in her mouth. Suddenly, the peace and tranquility was suddenly disturbed by a crashing sound on the front door. She calmly gets up, walks towards the door, and sees Keitaro on the ground in a very unnatural and uncomfortable pose.

"So, doing some yoga lessons while you were away, eh Keitaro?" remarked the shop owner.

"Nah, I was just given a free flight by Motoko. Why on earth does it always have to be me?" complained Keitaro.

"Well, besides that, have you finished preparing a room for the new tenant?"

"Almost, but we have to bring the boxes here. They belong to Granny."

Haruka sighed. "Of all the rooms, why did you choose that one? Least amount of boxes, is it?"

Keitaro nodded.

Haruka continued. "Well, you can bring them in here tomorrow, though that wouldn't bring a favourable first impression on Hasegawa-san. Well, you could inform the rest of the residents about her arrival. They should be back from school around now."

"Yes. I know."

Keitaro then proceeds to untangle himself and make his way back to the dorm. He doesn't really want to, with all the girls coming back, but there are some things that he still had to do. He just hopes the woman moving in is not like the other residents.

* * *

"Wow! A Todai student will be living here," exclaimed Naru, "and a real one at that. This is probably the chance that I've been waiting for."

"But you didn't get in either." said Keitaro.

"Shut up!" Naru yelled as she elbows Keitaro in the stomach. "It's all your fault for distracting me anyways."

"Um, I wonder what she's like." Shinobu asks.

"Probably a genius" said Su.

"Well, duh." Naru thought.

"Yay! I'm going to get a new playmate!!!" exclaimed Su.

"Mahora Academy. Probably some rich spoiled brat." Kitsune speculates as she looks at the papers Haruka left earlier. "But I do have to wonder, Mahora has their own university. Make's you think why she's going to Tokyo U instead."

Naru scratches her head. "Yeah, especially considering that the two institutions are rivals."

"Are brats delicious?" Su asks.

"I think you're thinking of bratwursts, not brats." Keitaro said. With the mention of food, his stomach growls once more.

"I guess I'd better start cooking." said Shinobu, as she heads for the kitchen.

"Ahem…Urashima-san, just because the lady will be new here doesn't mean that you can deceive her. And I will be watching you, especially after that stunt that you tried to pull back there." Motoko warned Keitaro.

"But I didn't…"

Motoko unsheathes her sword, which was enough to force Keitaro to stop complaining.

Suddenly, everyone hears someone knocking on the front door.

As it was still afternoon, Keitaro expected that Haruka dropped by to check up on them one last time. However, as soon as he opened the door, he saw that it was not Haruka.

In front of him is a young girl, somewhere between Shinobu's and Motoko's age. She has her long brown hair tied back, and wears a pair of thin-framed oval spectacles. She's wearing a white, long-sleeved blouse and a long, grey skirt that reach all the way to her ankles. She's carrying a huge backpack, a suitcase on her left hand, and a briefcase on her right hand.

Keitaro looks puzzled. He thought the person before him is simply too young to be a student at Tokyo U. On the other hand, it's that time of year where everyone gets off school for the break, and she may simply be a lost traveler. That's probably it, a lost middle schooler or high schooler.

"May I help you?" asks Keitaro.

Even though the girl before him looks calm and composed on the outside, he could sort of feel that she's nervous. He hopes this is not the new tenant. She's not expected to arrive until evening.

"Umm, sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for Hinata Inn."

The girls in the background then turned their heads toward the front door realizing the voice does not belong to Haruka. This is probably the new person everyone's talking about.

"This is Hinata Inn." Keitaro answered.

"Well, may I speak to the building manager?"

"Umm…you're speaking to him." Keitaro doesn't like where this is going. She could have been just a normal person if she's a little bit older and going to University, or had the briefing said that she were to attend high school. The last thing he needed was another weirdo on the house, though she doesn't look like one on the outside. To confirm his worst fears, he finally asks, "Are you the new tenant we're expecting?"

The girl sighed in relief. "Yes, Mr. Manager. My name's Hasegawa Chisame, and sorry for the short notice."


	2. So Long Mahora

Wow. I never really expected that kind of response. And I thought all along that I was rusty. I guess that's what happens when the Physics profs marking your 10-page lab reports (excluding images and equations) screens your grammar with much greater scrutiny than the English profs marking your 2-page BS-your-way-out essay, and that was more than three years ago! Anyways, thank you very much for your interest!!!

Well everyone, here's the second chapter. Enjoy.

Love Hina and Mahou Sensei Negima are the works of Ken Akamatsu. All I'm doing is using his characters and the setting

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**II: So Long Mahora**

Chisame sighs as she walks back home from school. Another crazy day at Class 2A. Why on earth does she have to be stuck with this class? First, a fiery argument between the Class President and the red-haired hothead during homeroom, which went nowhere. The teacher did nothing to stop them. As a matter of fact, Takahata-sensei seemed to be entertained by the whole thing. Then, the robot exploded, sending mad scientist and the little girl running for the University. Then the chubby cook began dishing out some tasty dishes. Only problem was she was doing so in the middle of Math class, not Home Ec. Then a sparring match between kung-fu girl and ninja girl in PE, only they were supposed to be playing softball. Then another…and another…and yet another.

She swears that these people are dragging her grades down, not that it really matters much. She's a straight-A student, fourth in the class right after the Chinese girl, mad scientist, and the class president. But that's not the point; it's just an excuse. Chisame's just probably afraid that all these girls in her class will drag her to insanity and rob her of her logic. Every single one in her class is just too weird and/or crazy. All she craves for is normalcy. Heck, all the other classes are normal, so why not hers? And to make matters worse, the school does not re-assign students to different classes yearly, which means she will be stuck with the same group for four more years. She's just wondering how she still ended up relatively normal after nine years with the same crazy people.

Chisame finally reaches the dorm, and she decides to check her mailbox besides the front door. To her surprise, she has a letter. She doesn't usually get one in any given day, save for the occasional holiday card from her parents. Besides, she usually communicates with her parents either by e-mail, or by instant messaging.

She takes a look at the letter. It's from the Dean's Office in Tokyo University. Yeah, she pulled off a stunt earlier in the month while the class was on a field trip to Tokyo. But she never really expected to get a letter back from them. Besides, Tokyo U don't usually send out test results by mail, as far as she knows.

She opened the letter and examined its contents. Suddenly, she doesn't know whether to smirk at her superiority, or be suspicious that this is some sort of a prank by the twins. Probably a prank.

The letter reads:

_Dear Hasegawa-san:_

_Congratulations! You have been accepted unconditionally for admission to Tokyo University. On behalf of the University, I would like to thank you for considering us for your future studies._

_I am writing this letter to let you know that you are placed in the Top Twenty out of all the test participants. For this remarkable achievement, the University would like to offer you an Entrance Scholarship of one million yen per year._

_Enclosed with this letter are the procedures to claim this scholarship._

_I would also like to inform you that registration for courses will begin on March 31st for all Scholarship Students. To register for courses, please see the Department you are interested in doing your major, or the Registrar's Office._

_Should you have any questions or concerns, just feel free to contact me or the Registrar._

_Once again, congratulations, and thank you for choosing Tokyo University._

_Sincerely,_

_Dean of Arts and Science_

_Tokyo University_

Well, Chisame's simply too tired to deal with this prank. Scolding the twins will have to wait until tomorrow

* * *

During English class, Chisame is sitting on her desk, with her elbow on the table and supporting her head with her arm. English is boring, at least for her. She sees enough of it in the Internet, and the lecture that Minamoto-sensei is teaching is just basic grammar...well, a review of basic grammar for the final exams. She knows how to write sentences. Heck, she already knows how to write essays in English! This is such a waste of time. All she does during this time is to use her laptop, go to Chiu's website, and browse around. 

Suddenly, a knock on the door interrupted Minamoto's lecture. It's the homeroom teacher, Takahata.

"Sorry to interrupt you, Minamoto-sensei, but Hasegawa-san is being summoned to the office."

All eyes are fixed on Chisame. Everyone's wondering what she could have possibly done. All they know was that she's usually grumpy, and she doesn't talk a lot, but what would warrant her being summoned to the Principal's office? She was never the type of person to cause trouble, despite the grumpiness and the silence. That really goes to show how little the class actually knows about her, even though they've been together for the past nine years.

Chisame closes her laptop, carries it on her left hand, and calmly walks towards the door. She probably knows what this was all about. She did disappear for a few hours for two consecutive days during her field trip, though no one in her class had noticed. Perhaps, one of the teachers did. Well, she's probably going to get scolded, and then eventually the principal will have a laugh about it once she explains what went on that day. She's never been to the principal's office before, but there's a first time for everything, right?

After a minute of silence, Takahata and Chisame finally reach the Principal's Office. Takatata finally broke the ice.

"Chisame-san, are you sure you really want to do this?"

Now she's puzzled. Those were not exactly the words she was expecting from him.

"What do you mean?"

Takahata sighed. "I guess you don't know yet."

The sensei knocks on the door.

"Come in!" said an elderly voice coming from inside.

Takahata slides the door open and let Chisame in. The sensei then follows, and closes the door behind them.

Chisame looks around the room. The room feels more like a library than a working office. It is a rather large and silent room, with bookcases filled with books on three sides, and a large window spanning floor to ceiling on the far end. Before the window lies a large oak desk. Behind the desk sits the elderly Principal of the school, who is comfortably clothed in his kimono.

The Principal finally speaks in a gentle voice. "Good morning, Chisame-san, Takahata-sensei. Please take a seat. How are you today?"

"I'm fine." Chisame said, as she tries to hide the building tension within her. She hasn't gotten herself in trouble before, and all she has to expect are wild speculations and stereotypes about going to the office.

"That's nice to hear. Let me get right down to business. Earlier this morning, I have received a letter from the Dean of Arts and Science from Tokyo University. Apparently, they are not only offering you admission, but they're giving you a major scholarship as well."

"Ah," Chisame muttered. It's all beginning to make sense to her now, or so she thought. Somehow, the twins knew of her sneaking out during the field trip and taking Tokyo U Entrance Exams. Then they must have sent her the fake letter yesterday, and dropped of the one the Principal has in his possession earlier this morning.

Chisame breathes, trying to maintain the façade of calmness as she tries to explain the situation.

"Well, Mr. Principal. I have to admit that I did sneak out during the field trip to Tokyo to take the Tokyo University Entrance Exams. I just…well…did that out of whim, nothing more."

Though everything she just said was true, she did leave out the main reason she sneaked out in the first place, namely to get away from the class for a few hours.

Chisame continues. "Well, I'm sure that letter is just a prank to expose me for what happened. I admit to what have happened, and I apologize for that."

The Principal answers. "Hmm, well, I didn't really think you would own up to your actions and apologize right away, and I admire you for that. Normally, most people would make excuses before reluctantly admitting responsibility. Chisame, I accept your apology. But that was not why you are here."

Chisame was suddenly reminded of the comment Takahata made earlier before they entered the office. Though remaining composed on the outside, her mind is now going a mile a minute as the Principal continues.

"You see, Chisame, this letter is no forgery. The Dean at Tokyo U is a good friend of mine, and there is no way that he would make a prank like this if it involves a student or an innocent bystander. I even called him just to make sure he didn't make a mistake. I told him some things about you and he told me about what happened. Apparently, from the test results, he is quite eager to meet you."

Chisame could not believe what she just heard. She was really offered a scholarship to Tokyo University. She was offered a way out of this insanity plaguing her the entire time in Mahora. But she knows that a very difficult task is about to come, starting this very second. The Principal is about to speak, and she braces herself for what's about to come.

"Chisame, I am not scolding you or anything, but I'm just wondering, why did you take the Tokyo U Entrance Exams?"

Chisame finally lets her guard down. It's no use lying…or rather, hiding facts from the Principal any longer if she were to properly explain herself.

"I did say that I did it for out of whim and curiosity, and that is true," she began with a soft, resigned voice. "But lately, I just have a feeling that I don't belong here. It's not that I'm getting picked on or anything. But then again, it just seems that…I don't share the same interests as the other girls in class. I just feel that we have nothing in common."

"Is that it? Well, you have been living alone in your own in that same room ever since you came here nine years ago. Sigh. I can't believe I didn't realize that sooner and overlooked such a thing for so long. Tell you what; I can arrange someone to move in with you."

"No, that's not it, Mr. Principal. I can take care of my own, though I do have to admit I get lonely sometimes. But that's not really what's bothering me."

After listening to the pair, Takahata finally decides to speak up. "Well, if you feel you're not being challenged enough, why not try joining some clubs then? You know that you are free to join any of the University's clubs. Why Satomi-san is a member…"

"That's not it either, Tahatata-sensei," as Chisame quietly interrupted. "The simple fact is that I don't fit in at all. Don't you find it strange at all that every single day, each and every one in our class is involved in some incident in one way or another?"

Takahata replied: "I wouldn't say each one. You seem to have a knack of not being mentioned at all."

"Well, my point is everyone in our class is either weird, or crazy. I just fear that I will lose my sanity at some point." Chisame said in a somewhat raised tone.

"Chisame-san, I wouldn't say you're exempt from that category. There is this thing about your website…"

"HOW DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT!!!" exclaimed Chisame in a rare emotional outburst, as she begins to show some blush on her cheeks. A moment later, she calms down. "Sorry for shouting at you like that…"

"Nah, I should be sorry. I should know better than mentioning your secret to anyone. Don't worry, you're secret is safe with us."

Chisame can only hope word about her website doesn't leak out to anyone, especially to paparazzi girl and the manga artist.

"Hmm, I can see where this is going," as the Principal begins to speak again, "so you are seriously considering leaving Mahora?"

"Yes."

"Do your parents know about this yet?"

"Not yet. As I told you before, I thought it was a prank. But I'll tell them tonight"

"Alright, though I'm guessing you did entertain the thought on what to do in the situation we are in right now, right?"

"Yeah, I did sort of fantasize about a plan to leave. I never thought it would come true, though."

"I'm just wondering that should you decide to leave, if you have a place to stay there. As you know, Mahora is too far away to commute to Tokyo everyday."

"Actually, no, I don't have a place in mind. My parents are basically freelancers, and they move around every three or four months. As far as I know, they have not bought a house yet. Probably that's why they sent me to a boarding school like this one. Well, maybe I can stay at one of the dorms in Tokyo U."

"I'm afraid you're much too young to be staying in Tokyo U. I'm sure you realize that yourself." Suddenly, the Principal comes up with an idea. "Oh, you may be interested in this, but I know of someone who owns a girl's dorm where you could stay. It's a little bit far from Tokyo University, but it has a bearable everyday commute."

Chisame, and surprisingly, Takahata, are stunned that the Principal is now offering her help, even though what she is asking for may be considered by many as an insult to Mahora Academy.

Takahata asks, "Mr. Principal, I'm wondering why you're now helping Chisame-san."

"Well, I'm not going to hold her back if she wishes to leave. Besides, I'm concerned about the well-being of my students, even if it means letting go of one of our best and brightest students." The Principal now turns to Chisame. "Chisame-san, please don't think that leaving here will mean that we will bear a grudge against you. I just want what's best for you. And if you need any more help, just feel free to come back and visit me any time."

"Thank you" Chisame muttered in an almost inaudible voice, as she stands up and bows gratefully before the Principal.

"Before I leave, can I ask you and Takahata-sensei a favour?"

The two men nodded.

"Please, don't let anyone know about this, at least not until after I've left Mahora. Not even the other staff. I just fear that they would bezerk, or worse, throw a wild party should they learn about this."

The Principal and Takahata both understood and agreed to her request.

* * *

It is nine in the morning. There is stress in the air. Everyone should be at school by now, in their classroms, nervously awaiting for the word from their respective invigilators to start the exams. 

The alarm clock just had to pick the worst time to run out of batteries for Kazumi. However, the source of her ire is more directed towards her two roommates right now. She knew the two of them would pull an all-nighter, but they could have at least woken her up. With a pen and pencil in her mouth, she dashes out full speed along the dorm's hallways as she hastily puts her school jacket on.

If she gets the timing right, she should be able to catch the tram heading for the Girls' Junior High, and she will be only fifteen minutes late for the exam. Miss the tram, and the best that she could hope for would be an F+.

Kazumi arrives at the stop in record time. No trams in sight. She doesn't whether it hasn't arrived yet, or she missed it. She sighs and looks around for latecomers who will be in the same boat as her. No one. However, she spots someone standing on the opposite side, heading for the other direction. Suddenly, any thoughts of the exam suddenly vanished as she realizes the person standing before her.

"Chisame!?"

The pen and pencil which were once held in Kazumi's mouth now hits the brick pavement as she spoke in bewilderment. Chisame looks back at her. She is not wearing the school uniform this time, instead wearing a long-sleeved blouse and a long grey skirt. She's carriying three bags: the backpack, and a couple of hand-held ones weighing down both arms. From the looks of it, Chisame is not going to write the exams, and is headed for the train station, going on a trip somewhere.

"Chisame, what are you doing? We still have the exams to write. The break's not until next week."

Chisame sighs. She knew well that this was the best time for her to leave, with everyone writing their exams an no one to bother her. On the other hand, she does have to give the Principal and Takahata some credit for sticking to their promise. It looks like even the Class Paparazzi, usually the first on the latest scoop, had absolutely no clue to her departure.

The class is now bound to find out sooner or later, as soon as they realize that someone named Hasegawa Chisame is no longer there. She may as well tell Kazumi what's going on.

"I'm leaving Mahora."

Shock overcame Kazumi. This was a scoop indeed, though she was not too eager to pick up on this particular one. Then she remembers that time last week when Chisame was summoned to the Principal's office. She berated herself for not following up on that incident.

"W-why? What happened there in the Principal's office? What did you do? Are you being expelled?" a nervous Kazumi asked.

"No, I was not expelled, though it does have something to do with what I did." Chisame said calmly. "Rest assured, I am leaving here on my own wish and accord."

"But...why are you leaving? What's going on?"

Suddenly, they hear a couple of bells ringing. It is the tram, heading from the school, and to the train station. The tram then stops between Chisame and Kazumi, interrupting the conversation.

Chisame boards the empty tram, and takes a seat besides a window facing Kazumi. She doesn't really want to give anyone, and Kazumi out of all the people, that she's going to Todai for the fear that they may follow her there once the break starts. Chisame takes a deep breath, and opens the window to talk to Kazumi one last time.

"I'm sorry, but I can't really tell you." After a short pause, Chisame continued, "Goodbye, Kazumi-san."

A bells ring a couple of times once more, this time, signalling the departure of the tram from the stop. Kazumi can only look on an gaze as the tram leaves the stop and disappears at a bend on the road, taking Chisame with it. Another tram, heading for the school, stops before Kazumi, waiting for her to get on. She just stood still. After a few seconds, the tram leaves, leaving Kazumi alone to contemplate what had just happened.


	3. Welcome to Hinata Inn

Hello everyone!

Well, this was an extremely difficult chapter for me to write. It wasn't writer's bloc, I sorta knew what I was going to write about; it was just hard to pick out the right words and how to present the story. Well, finally, it's done!

Oh yeah, thanks to everyone who have reviewed the story. And special thanks to SockMan for that very helpful comment. I was sort of having this debate in my head whether to use the past tense or the present. That stupid little habit of mine came from writing silly little skits, where someone is directing actors on what to do. Thus, the present tense. Oh well, the oil is already in the pipeline. But I'll keep that in mind the next time I write a fic.

Enjoy!

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**III: Welcome to Hinata Inn**

"My name is Hasegawa Chisame, and sorry for the short notice."

Keitaro stares incredulously at the girl in front of him. Nothing seems to make any sense for him nowadays. The lack of respect the girls have been giving him, despite being the manager. The hardships that face him in each and every single step that he takes. His failure to get to Todai…three times. And right after his failure…this. He doesn't know whether he's just become a victim of a cruel practical joke playing on his emotions, or this young person is really going to Tokyo U.

"Mr. Manager?"

That snaps Keitaro out of his stupor.

"Oh, I'm sorry, my mind just wandered off right now. I'm Urashima Keitaro, and welcome to Hinata Inn. Come on in."

That odd pause caused Chisame to be in an uncomfortable state for a moment. She knew that the Principal had only given the landlord a few days notice of her arrival. On top of that, she did arrive earlier than she had anticipated. Although the manager was expecting her as she recalls earlier in the conversation, she couldn't help but feel guilty that the manager doesn't seem prepared at all. Not a favourable first impression at all. Oh well, her new life has just started.

Chisame looks around her new surroundings as she enters Hinata Inn for the first time. Compared to the simple lobby at her old dorm in Mahora, Hinata's lobby looks quite grand and luxurious, though there are some telltale signs of wear and neglect. From what she can see, the lobby also doubles as a common room, complete with several couches and a TV. Seated on the couches, looking right back at her, are the residents of Hinata Inn.

Seeing that everyone's attention was already on her, Keitaro prepares to address the residents. However, before he had a chance to speak, Chisame decides to introduce herself to everyone.

"Hello everyone. My name is Hasegawa Chisame. I will be a student in Todai, and I will be staying here for the duration of my studies." Chisame ends her brief introduction with a bow.

"Hello Chisame-chan. I'm Konno Mitsune, but you can just call me Kitsune. Nice to meet you."

"Hi! I'm Koalla Su! Do you like to play with new toys, Chisame-chan?" said the hyperactive thirteen-year old.

"Umm…sort of…"

"Yay!!! I have a playmate!!! I have a playmate!!!" Su exclaimed as she repeated herself again and again like a broken record.

"Hush, Su. You're making the newcomer uncomfortable," as the kendo master tries to calm down the bouncing foreigner. "Anyways, I am Aoyama Motoko. It's a pleasure to meet you, Hasegawa-san."

"And my name is Narusegawa Naru. Just call me Naru."

Naru looks at everyone. It seems that everyone is staring back at her, including the newcomer.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Kitsune hands Naru a mirror. Naru looks at the mirror, and doesn't see the big deal until she puts the mirror down and looks at Hasegawa. Then her skin begins to pale as Chisame starts to speak in a monotonous voice.

"It seems that legend about someone having a doppelganger somewhere in the world is true. I just hope I don't die soon."

The girl certainly has a dark sense of humour.

Everyone now is certainly thinking about the resemblance between Chisame and Naru. Just put a pair of glasses on Naru and braid her hair, and voilà! There are a few minor, but all-important differences. First of all, Chisame is younger, and therefore, looks younger than Naru. Next, Chisame does not looking geeky at all with her wearing a ponytail and glasses. Finally, it seems that this girl has some sense of style, which sort of contributes to the second point of not being geeky.

The uneasy silence is broken by Keitaro's stomach growling.

"Oh, I see that you skipped lunch, Mr. Manager. Again, sorry for intruding on such short notice."

"Ah, don't worry about it," as Keitaro laughs nervously. "Anyways, let me show you your room."

* * *

"So…I will be staying in the Storage Room?" 

Keitaro's skin turns white in shame and embarrassment. Why on earth haven't he noticed that sign much earlier? That certainly explains Granny Hina's belongings being there in the first place. He can probably guess Chisame is not too impressed.

"I…I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!!! I swear I will prepare a room for you right away!!!" Keitaro bumbled apologetically as he bows repeatedly.

"Keitaro, what are you trying to pull here?" demands an angry Narusegawa.

"I…I swear…nothing! I was in a hurry and didn't realize…"

"…that this is the Storage Room, and it sits conveniently right in front of your room, Keitaro?" Naru growls as she clenches her fist.

"Well, I did come here on short notice." Chisame calmly interrupts the two.

Chisame puts her suitcase down and opens the door. She enters the Storage Room and looks around. The big room is dusty, with the impression of where the boxes were laid still on the floor. With the dust in the air, one can see the rays of sunlight making its way through the small windows located high on the wall, and hitting the floor. She can also see some sort of a sub-room or a closet, to the left of the door.

"Hmm, it's a bit dirty, but it's big, certainly way bigger than my old room in Mahora."

That comment dealt a blow on Keitaro's ego, particulary his thinking skills. Not the dirty part. The big part. He looks around and this room _is_ at least fifty per cent bigger, maybe a bit more, than the other rooms in the dorm. No wonder he had to haul out so many boxes earlier in the day.

Chisame continues, "Well, it needs a little cleaning, but other than that, it's perfect. That is, if you do let me stay here."

"You _want_ this room?" Keitaro and Naru both ask her simultaneously.

"Seeing all those boxes in the hallway, I see that it might have taken you guys some time to get those out of here. Besides, after the short notice and my early arrival, I don't want be a bother to you any longer."

"Well, I'm glad you like it." Keitaro said as he breathes a sigh of relief, yet still uneasy. "Well then, make yourself at home."

As Keitaro makes his way out of the room, he knew that he have just dodged one bullet, only to come into the path of another one. Chisame seems happy, but he will certainly never hear the end of it from Naru and Motoko. He just knows that they will accuse him of being a pervert for placing Chisame oh-so-conveniently across his room.

Once Keitaro and Naru left the room, Chisame finally puts her backpack and briefcase down after a long journey. As she settles down and familiarizes herself, she looks around for a power outlet. To her dismay, the room has none.

* * *

A knock on the door stirs Chisame up from her slumber. Apparently, after having given up looking for a power outlet for her laptop (to recharge its batteries), she somehow found herself taking a nice long nap. She looks at the windows perched high above the walls. The day has already passed, though the twilight hints at what time in the evening it is. Taking her head off her backpack, which she used as a pillow, she gets up and brushes the dust off her clothes. 

Chisame opens the door.

"Umm…good evening Hasegawa-san. Dinner is ready."

"Say, I don't believe we've met yet."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Maehara Shinobu. I was cooking dinner when you arrived, so I wasn't able to introduce myself earlier."

"Well, it's nice to meet you. Did mention something about dinner?"

"Oh, yes, I did. I'll show you the way to the kitchen."

Chisame follows Shinobu as she leads her the way to dinner. Chisame is not relly hungry right now, having eaten several snacks during her trip. But she does want to know what kind of people she will be staying with for the next four or so years. She couldn't really tell anything about the girls so far during the introductions, save for the stunt double, who appears to possess a very short temper. But she knows she shouldn't make any quick judgments about her, or any of the girls for that matter, considering she's only been around them for a grand total of ten minutes, give or take a few.

Soon enough, they reach the kitchen. The rest of the girls are already seated, waiting to pounce on the masterpiece Shinobu just made.

Chisame takes a seat between Su and Shinobu. The aroma in the room alone is enough to make anyone's mouth water, but with the way the food is presented before them, all anyone can think of right now is to eat, eat, and eat! Even Chisame's stomach, which was apparently content a minute ago, suddenly decides that it was hungry.

"All right!!! Let's eat!!!" exclaimed Su.

As she prepares to dig in, Chisame looks across the table, and notices an empty seat across her.

"Umm, is there someone else I haven't met yet? That seat over there is vacant."

"Oh, Keitaro-sempai isn't here yet. Anyone knows where he might be?" asked a concerned Shinobu.

"No," as a fuming Naru lied. She knows well that she sent him high into the stratosphere after he 'accidentally' tripped into her after their lengthy argument about Chisame's room ended nowhere.

"So, tell me Chisame-chan, how on earth did someone like you end up going to Todai?" A curious Kitsune inquires her.

"I don't know. I just took the test. I apparently passed and was offered a scholarship, so I took their offer." Chisame replies as she normally would deal with any other queries about her; quick, concise, and to the point.

Chisame's reply didn't really give the answers Kitsune was hoping for, while Naru's world seemed to suddenly come crashing down on her upon hearing Chisame's comment.

"B-b-but...how can that be? I…I studied hard and failed…I mean, you seem to be only sixteen…"

"Fourteen"

"FOURTEEN!" Everyone exclaims in surprise, well, except for Motoko, who simply raised an eyebrow upon hearing that.

Chisame, at this point, is beginning to regret telling everyone her real age. Now everyone will think she is some weird genius.

"Well, at least you studied hard enough to get into Todai. I guess I should be congratulating you." Naru said as she sighed in resignation.

Chisame, now in damage-control mode, simply dares not respond to Naru's comment. Even though she is a secretive type of person, Chisame just doesn't like to lie to anyone at all. Silence should do the trick. Besides, telling everyone that she never studied at all for the entrance exams will just make matters worse, especially for Naru, who claimed to have worked and studied hard for the test.

"Wow. You're only a year ahead of me, and you're already in Todai. Can I call you Chisame-sempai?" asked a very impressed Shinobu.

"Umm, sure."

Naru now starts to complain about how she ended up like this in the first place. "Well, I probably would have passed the exams too if it weren't for that pervert!"

"Pervert?" asked Chisame.

"Chisame-san, don't you think it's odd that the landlord and manager of this supposedly all-girls dormitory is a male?"

"No."

"What do you mean no!?" asked a surprised Naru, who doesn't know whether Chisame is simply too young and naïve, or she's one of those super-geniuses academically while totally clueless socially.

"Well, you say that he is the landlord, and he's also acting as the manager. He owns and takes care of this place. He just happens to be a man. I don't see anything wrong with that."

"But vile and despicable men should never be allowed to even have the opportunity to be around with us women." Motoko said as she finally joins the conversation.

"Yeah!" Naru added.

Chisame shakes her head, closes her eyes and sighs as Motoko and Naru continue to bombard her with anti-male propaganda. For heaven's sake, she was the one who went to an all-girls school, and from all that logic can tell her, she really finds nothing wrong with a man owning and running the place. Those two were simply being irrational. All she could guess is that these two had suffered some sort of harassment or abuse when they were younger, thus hating all creatures unfortunate enough to have inherited the Y-Chromosome.

"If I were you Chisame-san, I'd watch out for that pervert." as Naru tries to warn Chisame.

"I'll try to keep that in mind." Chisame responds nonchalantly.

"BURP!"

Everyone now has their eyes on Su, who is now slouching against the wall and rubbing her stomach in satisfaction. After that, everyone realized that all the food is gone.

"Ahhh, that was great! Good job, Shinobu!" Su said. "So Chisame-chan, what kind of toys do you play with?"

"Well, I have my computer. Write new programs, play online chess, surf the net…"

"Surf the net?" Su wonders. "How can you surf using a net? You'll just get tangled up and sink. Don't you usually use a surfboard?"

Chisame sighs at the ignorance of this child. Then again, she takes a look at everybody and they too seem to be sharing that same mental image as Su.

Speaking of the internet, Chisame now asks them some questions.

"Say, what type of connection do you guys have in this place? T1?"

"T1? I haven't watched any of the _Terminator_ movies yet." said a dumbfounded Naru.

"Guess not. DSL? Cable?"

"No, our TV doesn't have cable. And I haven't heard of this 'DSL' company yet." replied Kitsune, who had no idea what Chisame was talking about.

"Dial-up? Geez, do you guys even have internet here?"

"In-ter-net?" everyone asks her.

Chisame lets out an incoherent grunt of disappointment as she puts her hand on her forehead and looks at the ceiling, wondering what on earth the Principal has gotten her into.

"What now?" Chisame wonders as she puts her elbow on the table, with the hand still on the forehead.

She looks at the window. It is now definitely nighttime. She realizes that she has yet to talk to her parents about her arrival, and with no internet connection inside the building (as far as she could tell), she would have to go to an internet café, or leech off a wireless network to get started with this task.

Chisame stands up and addresses everyone. "Sorry everyone. I forgot I still have to talk to my parents. I'll be going out for a while. Thanks for the dinner." She then hurries to her room

"Chisame-sempai, we have a phone here." Unfortunately for Shinobu, Chisame did not hear her.

Next, everyone sees Chisame walking quickly across the lobby holding a laptop as she leaves the building

Kitsune looks at Chisame as she's leaving, and comes up with her evaluation.

"Definitely a brat."

* * *

It is now dark, and Keitaro is slowly making his way back through the streets of the village holding a futon. Keitaro can't just understand why Naru would just jump into conclusions like that, or worse, won't give him a chance to explain. He desperately tried to take some time off to recharge himself and get away from everyone for a while, especially Naru. Unfortunately for him, he just keeps on bumping into her, even during this trip of his. He just feels she will just rip his head apart at any given time now. 

Lost in his train of thought, Keitaro trips. Fortunately for him, the futon he was holding broke his fall. He checked the futon; it was still clean. It was a good thing that he landed in front of (unfortunately, not in) a futon shop at the end of his hands-on ballistics lesson with Naru. He was about to head back right away when he realized that Hasegawa had nothing to sleep on for the night, and he didn't want to search all those rooms and boxes for an old, dusty futon. And thus, he took the quick way out: he bought one.

As Keitaro continues his way back, he passes by a girl seated on the bench, typing madly on her computer. Now, once again, due to his clumsiness, he trips on something. Again, due to the futon, this ordeal was miraculously painless. However, the girl seem irate.

"What the!?? Battery low?? Who on earth unplugged the…" The girl pauses as she realizes who unplugged her laptop, and what really happened. "Oh, Mr. Manager?"

"Huh? What?" asked a disoriented Keitaro, still lying atop the futon he just bought. Eventually, he regains his senses.

"Oh, Chisame-san. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!!! I swear, I didn't mean it. It was an accident"

"Sigh, that's alright." said Chisame as she plugs her computer back into the electrical socket. "What are you doing? You missed dinner."

"Oh," said Keitaro, not knowing whether to answer her question, or to dismay that he has to go hungry for another night. Keitaro looks at the futon he is on right now and replies, "Well, I bought you a futon, though from the looks of it, it's a bit dirty now."

"Ah, don't worry about it. It still looks clean enough." Chisame said as she resumes typing in her laptop.

"Wow, is that your computer?" asks Keitaro, as he looks in awe at Chisame's constant companion. "Oooh, it so small and sleek, yet it has a big screen. What are you doing right now?"

"Oh, talking to my parents."

"On a computer?"

"Through the internet. The dorm doesn't have any connections, and right now, I'm leeching of one of the wireless networks."

"Wow, you could use the internet using that thing?" asks Keitaro in amazement, having only used the internet before in internet cafes.

"Yes"

"Really? Wow, you do really know a lot about the internet."

"Well, somewhat"

"Man, I haven't been in the internet for a long time now due to all that studying. Oh, Chisame-chan, have you ever heard of Chiu, the net idol? A lot of people have been talking about her website, you know?"

The rhythmic tapping on the keyboard suddenly stops. Chisame looks at him, and knows that the manager may most likely be just one of the Chiu's many admirers. She just hopes that he's not on to something here.

Chisame lets out a small cough to clear the throat first before she answers, "Yes, I've heard of Chiu. Been to her website. Really popular all over the net."

"Ah, so you're a fan too, Chisame?"

"Hmm, you may say that."

"Oh, can we see her website right now?" Keitaro asks as he now peers over Chisame's shoulder to look at the screen.

"Umm, do you mind? I'm still talking to my parents here." Chisame asks of Keitaro.

Keitaro responds apologetically as he quickly looks away. "Oh, I'm sorry! I forgot you were doing that!"

Chisame sighs as she resumes typing. She knows that the manager is probably just excited to see a state-of-the-art computer that can do a lot of things. He seems to be more interested in her computer and its capabilities rather than its contents. Well, no harm done, though having him talking about Chiu did give her a little scare.

As she continues her chat session with her parents, she hears the manager call out to her.

"Hey, Chisame-chan. Are you sure you'll be alright out here? It's already dark, and I don't think you should be alone out here, especially on your first day."

The manager is right. She is no longer in Mahora, where she was staying in the all-girls section of the campus, and where her safety and security were being taken care of by the school. She is now in the real world, where anything could happen, judging from the stories she has heard on the news and in the internet.

"Mr. Manager, can you give me five minutes? I just have to finish up talking to my parents."

Keitaro smiles and accepts her request.

* * *

Keitaro is now escorting Chisame back home as they're walking up the stairs leading to Hinata Inn. He has to admit that the day, for the most part, had been quite hectic and stressful. The usual chaos and beatings of everyday life managing the Inn, compounded by the fact that it was his first day back since he failed the entrance exam, and a new tenant arriving. This day would probably have been one of the days he would rather forget if it weren't for that last conversation he had with Chisame at the village. 

Yes, Chisame is one peculiar person, considering she is a young teenager who's already going to Todai. But other than that, she seems just like any other young teenager out there, as far as Keitaro knows. He found out that they share some of the same interests, such as surfing the internet. Sure, she may have sounded like the other tenants when she requested that electrical outlets and a dedicated T1 connection be installed in her room. But since she said that she will pay for the internet connection and will share it with everyone in the Inn, he didn't mind at all. Besides, he's also excited of having the internet at home, and not having to go all the way to a café to do so.

As both of them make it atop the flight of stairs, Keitaro starts to feel lightheaded and dizzy. He has had a long day. Backbreaking labour carrying all those boxes. Two free flights into the air, courtesy of Motoko and Naru. Not having any food at all for the entire whole day.

Keitaro stops. Chisame looks at him, and sees that he is beginning to wobble around.

"Mr. Manager, are you alright?" a highly concerned Chisame asks.

His stomach growls. He faints, and collapses into the futon he was carrying.

"MR. MANAGER!"

Chisame hurries into the Inn as she tries to find someone for help.


	4. Laundry Thief

Hello everyone! Well, I now present you the fourth chapter!

OC? I see no OC's around here (well, at least not yet). Perhaps I didn't make things clear earlier. Now everyone, read carefully: _Love Hina_ and Hasegawa Chisame from _Mahou Sensei Negima_ are the creations of Ken Akamatsu, not mine. So there. Now I hope I don't get sued :(

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* * *

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**IV: Laundry Thief**

The room is dark. Dark, not in the sense of pitch black, where no one can see anything. It is dark, considering that the room is illuminated by the glow of the window whose curtains are shut closed. It is dark enough that Haruka's eyes need a couple of minutes to adjust to the sudden change in lighting conditions.

Haruka looks at her nephew, sleeping in his futon in the middle of the room. She knows he cannot sleep forever, though she's got a hint that he wishes to do so. He appears to be fine this time, though there's only one way to find out.

She walks across the room and draws the curtains open.

A sudden burst of light hits Keitaro's face, overwhelming the senses. He lets out a moan, and starts to stir around. Reluctantly, he opens his eyes ever so slightly, only to be blinded by the bright light shining on him. Instinctively, he pulls the blanket on top of his head to shield him from the radiance that's pounding him.

"Hey Keitaro, wake up."

With the sudden influx of auditory signals reaching his brain, he finally decides to wake up. He turns his body away from the window, facing away from the intense sunlight which blinded him earlier. He takes his time sitting up, and squinting, looks around the room for his aunt.

"You seem to be fine now, Keitaro." Haruka sighs and continues, "You gave that girl quite a scare last night."

His dazed and confused mind now starts to recall the previous day's events as it gradually deciphers the meaning behind what his aunt just said. New tenant…moving heavy boxes…two beatings…no food…they all led to passing out. Amazingly, he's no longer hungry for the moment, though he knows well that he needs to have something to eat.

"So, Aunt Haruka, how long was I out?"

Resisting the urge to give Keitaro another knock on the head (considering his situation), Haruka replies, "Didn't I just say you passed out last night? I guess you're not fully awake yet."

"Do we have anything to eat here? I haven't eaten at all since…well, since I came back from my trip."

Haruka smiles slightly, relieved that her nephew's condition isn't that serious; he was simply hungry.

"The girls have already left for school…well, except for Kitsune and Hasegawa-san. I guess I can cook something up for you. I closed my shop up today just to take care of you, so you'd better be grateful."

* * *

Holding a smashed-up box of 'Count Chocula' cereal, Hasegawa Chisame is now down on her knees, raiding the fridge, looking for some milk. While packing, she somewhat questioned herself as to why she would pack a cereal box in her backpack. But right now, she could find no food in the kitchen, and since she's too lazy to dish up something else today, she's glad to have made that decision. Besides, the only place she knows of that sells this delicious junk, and most stuff Western, at a reasonable price is in Mahora. Now, if she could only find some milk. 

While searching, she hears two people approaching the kitchen, talking about the boxes on the hallway. From their voices, she could tell that one of them is the aunt, having met her the night before. And, somewhat to her relief, the other voice belongs to the manager.

"So, what are you cooking, Aunt Haruka," Keitaro asks his aunt as they enter the kitchen.

"Oh, Mr. Manager," Chisame greets them, still on her knees before the fridge. With a somewhat concerned look in her face, she asks, "Are you all right now?"

"Ah, yeah, I'm fine now Chisame-san. It appears I just need to eat, that's all."

"Hmm, looking for something, Hasegawa-san," asks Haruka as she looks at the newcomer.

"Oh, do you have some milk?"

"No."

Defeated, Chisame gets up and closes the fridge. She then walks over to the kitchen table, takes a seat, opens up the cereal box, and starts eating its contents directly from the box one by one with her hand. Haruka and Keitaro, never having seen or heard of breakfast cereal before, both stare at her and try to figure out what on earth she is eating.

"Um, Chisame, what's that you're eating?" Keitaro wonders.

"Oh, this? Have some." Chisame then extends the crumpled-up box to a somewhat reluctant Keitaro.

"Geez, I guess I'd really have to cook something up," Haruka sighs as she heads for the fridge. "You still have to eat a healthy meal after what happened to you last night, Keitaro."

Having heard the promise of some real food on the way, Chisame puts the box aside. Keitaro, knowing that he has to put something in his stomach before he passes out again, reaches in the box, and eats a piece. Too sweet for his taste.

"Chisame, how can you eat this thing first thing in the morning?"

"I don't know. I just like it."

"So, what are you doing today? It's still March, and Todai is not yet in session."

"Well, I'm planning to go to Todai tomorrow to see what sort of courses I can take. But for now, I have nothing to do. I think I'll go explore the town today."

"I guess I can show you around…"

"Unfortunately, not today," Haruka interrupted. "You still have all those boxes to move to the teashop."

"You're making him work after what happened last night?" Chisame asks.

"Don't worry. He's quite a resilient man. You'll know this soon enough."

Keitaro sighs at the ordeal he is about to face, while Chisame looks on with some concern and worry on her face.

For the next few minutes, everything's quiet, with the silence being broken by the chopping of vegetables and cooking of the food. Haruka is quite determined to cook something for her nephew so he wouldn't pass out during the task. Keitaro is now thinking ahead on how to move all those boxes which belong to his grandmother. Chisame, on the other hand, is slowly learning and wondering about how this place seems to be getting weirder and weirder. Well, maybe it's all in her mind. All those years with the crazy ones in Mahora must finally be taking its toll on her sanity. She just hopes she escaped just in time.

* * *

Time seem to pass by quickly if you're having fun. Although she intended to return to the Inn after exploring the town, Chisame ended up spending the entire afternoon playing a long multiplayer game in a LAN café. That's right, _a_ game, as in one long game. Normally, she would just pass up a chance to play a game against these extreme gamers who have no other life outside playing these games, but this particular game just happened to be one of those programs she happened to write herself. Admittedly, she never played this strategy game on multiplayer-mode before, and so she was down to a doghouse, a tank factory, and a sub pen early on in the game (which is why the game took so long in the first place). Now, she could have just cheated and exploited the loopholes in the game, but she was determined to finish this fair and square. Anyways, long story short, through shrewd diplomacy and tactics, she ended up winning the game. 

Finally back in the Inn after what seemed like a quick day, Chisame heads over to her room. She decides it's time for her to change her clothes, and proceeds to her backpack to get them. Once she's done, she tosses the dirty laundry over at a corner of the room. However, she takes a second look at the corner, and lo and behold, the clothes that she had worn the previous day are no longer there. Her good mood quickly turned sour; someone had taken her laundry. It's a good thing the rest of her belongings haven't arrived yet, or she would have exploded.

She marches off out her door, fuming about what she just found out. On her way downstairs, she sees Kitsune, a resident staying on the same floor as her, heading up to her room.

Chisame doesn't know who took the clothes, so she may as well question the residents one by one.

"You, did you happen to be in my room today?"

"No. Why do you ask Chisame-chan?" Kitsune senses that something is bothering Chisame bigtime.

"Arrgghh," Chisame grunted incoherently. "Someone took my clothes."

"Ah, it's probably…"

A mischievous smile now appears in Kitsune's face. She's just thought of something that would make what had been a boring day for her more interesting.

"Who took it?" Chisame sternly demanded.

"Ah, it's probably just that pervert."

"Pervert!? But who..."

Suddenly, Chisame quickly recalls the rants of stunt double and kendo girl during dinner last night. Their complaints about the landlord being male. The supposed atrocities that he had done. She was never able to comprehend yesterday, but Chisame is beginning to see where these girls are coming from.

"Where is the manager?"

"Downstairs, on the couch." Kitsune grins inwardly as her plans are beginning to roll into place.

* * *

After a long day's worth of hard work, Keitaro is now lying on the couch. He's just finished off moving the final box of his grandmother's belongings to the teahose, and now he could finally get some rest…at least until one of the residents demands that he do one of his managerial duties. Well, at least this hectic pace has kept his mind off his latest failure to get to Todai, and more importantly, Narusegawa's wrath towards him. 

He suddenly hears the rapid stomping of someone running downstairs. Expecting Su, he now braces for impact.

The kick never came. Curious to see what's going on, he gets up and looks at the stairwell. Stomping towards him is a seemingly angry Chisame.

"Mr. Manager!" Chisame calls out in an angry, yet somewhat composed tone.

"Chisame-san? What's seems to be the problem?" Keitaro asks quizzically.

In a low voice, Chisame demands, "Were you in my room?"

"Umm…yes," Keitaro responds uneasily, "…the internet guy called in this afternoon and asked about the phone jacks in the building. So…"

Chisame continues her interrogation, "Well then, did you by any chance take my clothes?"

"What!? No! There were no clothes lying around when I came in…"

"Well, she over there thinks you're the one who took it." Chisame continues as she points towards Kitsune, her apparent source of information. Kitsune, looking at the two, seems to be entertained by the whole thing. The fox then gives a wink at Keitaro.

"You…you trust that witch," exclaimed Keitaro.

Chisame continues on in a serious tone as she stares at the manager eye to eye. "You, the other tenants yesterday were talking about you last night at dinner. At first, I thought that they were just exaggerating, or downright wrong. But I now see that their warnings about a pervert in this house is not unfounded. Now, tell me where my clothes are, or else I'll make sure everyone knows about this."

Keitaro starts to bumble in response, "B-but…I…I really didn't do anything…"

Chisame feels someone tap on her back. She quickly turns her head around and grumbled.

"What do you want!?"

She now sees that it's the resident cook, who's holding a laundry basket and now shaking in fear.

"Umm…Chisame-sempai? Y-Your clothes are ready…" as Shinobu stammers.

Chisame eyes, from behind those glasses of hers, are now glaring at the middle-schooler. "So, you were the one who took my clothes, am I right?"

"Y-yes. I also do the laundry around here." Under Chisame's stare, Shinobu's eyes now begin to water.

Chisame now takes a deep breath as she begins her lecture. In a quiet, yet authorative tone, she begins, "You, don't you know better than to take someone else's dirty clothes? A lot of people out there, me included, prefer to wash their own clothes, and for a good reason: no one wants anyone else to see their dirty laundry. And that's not the worst thing. I even accused the wrong person of taking my clothes. You get that now?"

Shinobu drops the laundry basket. Other than her parents, she has never been lectured at like this.

"I..I-m sorry, Chisame-sempai!"

Shinobu then runs off crying for her room. Chisame couldn't help but have that sense of guilt inside. She didn't mean to make her cry; she just wanted to make her point across. Perhaps she was too harsh on her delivery. She makes a mental note to talk to the cook later to clarify things.

Chisame takes another deep breath, and then turns towards the manager.

"Mr. Manager, I must apologize for lashing out at you like that."

Keitaro simply smiles as he responds, "Ah, don't worry about it, Chisame. This kind of thing happens a lot around here." He then ends off with a nervous laugh.

"URASHIMA!!!"

Both Chisame and Keitaro now turn their head towards the stairwell. It is Motoko, with her sword unsheathed, ready to do damage.

"What's this I'm hearing about stealing Hasegawa's underwear?" Motoko demanded.

"Umm…I think that has been resolved…" as Chisame tries in vain to talk to the swordswoman.

Not hearing a word from the newcomer, Motoko continues, "And I just saw Shinobu running off crying! You must certainly pay for this, you pervert!!!"

Motoko then makes a slash towards the unfortunate chap. The narrow gust of air narrowly misses Chisame with great precision, before hitting the manager head on. The manager is then thrown across the room, and slams onto the wall.

Chisame is aghast at what she just saw. With her eyes wide open and her jaw hanging down, she looks at the supposedly injured manager as he struggles to get back up.

"W-what the hell was that!?" Chisame demanded of Motoko. "You…you just did that to our manager!!!"

"He deserved it."

"N-no he didn't. It was just a misunderstanding."

"Well, Kitsune told me everything…"

"What!?"

Chisame now begins to stare daggers at Kitsune, who is standing right behind Motoko. She now has one person in the Inn whom she definitely doesn't trust. Her confrontation with the house maid was just a simple misunderstanding. And she can't really put the full blame on the kendo freak; she herself initially did the same thing to the manager for the fiasco, though the consequences on her part was way less severe. But the troublemaker, _she_ started it all.

"You," Chisame points out with contempt at Kitsune.

With both hands on the sides of her head, she lets out an incoherent grunt out of frustration. With the fox blocking her passage to her room, Chisame decides to go storming out of the Inn to cool herself off.


	5. Course Selection

Hey Hey! Working evening shifts suck. It somewhat shortens your day for some weird reason. On top of that, I haven't been able to upload anything to this site the past two days. Good thing I still have the two dummy documents sitting around when I first experimented trying to create a story. Well, with this chap, it's down to one. Thank God for cut-and-paste!

Well, this is probably a bland chapter, but it does hint of what's to come, so bear with me. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: _Love Hina_ and Hasegawa Chisame from _Mahou Sensei Negima_ are the creations of Ken Akamatsu.

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**V: Course Selection**

It is the 30th of March, 8:37 in the morning. A train crammed full of commuters is headed for Tokyo, carrying with it various people from all walks of life waiting grudgingly or not to start their day. Merchants, accountants, lawyers, government workers, minor politicians, some high school students, and so on. Seated on one of the window seats, with a notebook computer on her lap, is Hasegawa Chisame.

Chisame hasn't had exactly the best of nights last evening. She skipped dinner—well, not exactly; she ended up eating out alone at a ramen restaurant. After eating, she returned home and went directly to her room, trying to avoid the other residents like a plague. Well, probably not all of them, just the sleazy scheming one. Point is, even though only one person was mainly responsible for the commotion that day (thus far), she simply fears that this is going to be Mahora all over again. Maybe it's just paranoia getting to her; it's still too soon to tell. After all, all that she ever wants is a nice, quiet, normal life. If there's any consolation for her, at least there was only _one_ incident that day.

The train grinds to its final stop: Tokyo. As the other passengers start to disembark, Chisame folds her laptop, and pits it in its briefcase. Before long, she joins the ranks of commuters leaving the train and exiting the station. She then looks at a map for directions to her destination: Tokyo University.

* * *

Chisame is now walking along a long hallway, looking for the Dean's Office. As she's walking, she recalls those two days when she pulled off a disappearing act during the field trip to take the exams. The planning stages. The escape. The first time she entered the building she wrote her exams in, which is located across from the one she is in right now. She can even remember that time when she was almost barred from taking the exams since she looked too young. Well, she was indeed way younger than the majority of the examinees who wrote the exams. Now, the risk has paid off; she is now miles away from the insanity of a place called Mahora. 

She stops in front of a very important-looking room. Indeed, this room in the building is important: this is the Dean's office. She knocks on the door, and hears a female voice call out.

"Come in."

Chisame enters. She looks around, and sees the secretary sitting on her desk doing some paperwork. Behind the secretary's desk is another door, which is closed for the moment.

"How may I help you?"

With some uncertainty associated with doing something completely new, Chisame replied, "Umm, I am looking for the Dean."

"Do you have an appointment with him?" the secretary asked in a business-like manner.

"Uh, no. I guess I should have done that before coming here."

"Well, miss, the Dean is a very busy person."

"Oh, I'm sorry for intruding in like that," a disappointed Chisame responded as calmly as she possibly can. "I'm wondering if I can make an appointment to speak to the Dean."

"Well, today's booked solid. You can try tomorrow, sometime after one."

"I guess tomorrow's fine, though I'm supposed to register for courses tomorrow."

"A scholarship student, huh?" the secretary muttered. "Alright, I just need your name, and the nature of the business."

"Okay. I'm Hasegawa Chisame and…"

The secretary's eyes grew wide open upon hearing her name.

"Wait, you're Hasegawa Chisame?" the secretary asked, trying to confirm if what she have just heard is indeed true.

"Yes"

"Hasegawa-san, can you hold on for a minute?"

The secretary swiftly turns to the intercom and calls for the Dean.

"What? Haven't I told you not to disturb me today?" a somewhat annoyed voice, belonging to another woman, comes out of the speaker.

"Well Dean, someone's here to see you."

"This better be someone important."

"It's Hasegawa Chisame. The undeclared scholarship student."

For a while, there is silence. After a few seconds, the door behind the secretary's desk opens. Holding the door open is a lady, possibly in her fifties, dressed up in a suit and a skirt. The lady looks at Chisame and examines her. After a look of apparent recognition, the Dean addresses the young student.

"Hasegawa-san. Come on in."

Chisame is somewhat surprised that the Dean is a woman. Nevertheless, she followed the Dean and entered the back room. As she tries to close the door behind her, the Dean motioned her to leave the doors open.

"Take a seat, Hasegawa-san."

"Thank you."

"Well, Hasegawa-san, I wasn't really expecting you for a visit, but I'm glad you dropped by."

"Uh, Miss Dean, the letter you sent me said that I can contact you anytime." Chisame tries to excuse herself as she looks at the letter that she had received.

"Hmm, I don't remember sending a letter to anyone," the elder woman wonders to herself.

Upon hearing that comment, Chisame's heart begins to race, though still looking calm and composed on the outside. No letter sent? Does this mean that this is all a hoax? But the Dean and the secretary seem to be aware of who she is, or at least, aware of her name. Besides, if they didn't know who she was, she wouldn't be here speaking to the Dean right now.

The Dean breaks the silence.

"Anyways, welcome to Tokyo University. I'm glad that you have declared a major. You were the only one out of the top twenty examinees who didn't do so," the Dean said joyously.

"A major?" asked a confused Chisame. "But I haven't decided yet. The reason why I came here is to get some advice on what sort of courses I could take here."

"Well, the some of other deans in the university may be willing to take some time to advise students, but I…" The elder lady then pauses for a moment, thinking about what she just said. "Hasegawa-san, may I take a look at that letter?"

Chisame hands the lady the letter.

In a tone of slight disappointment, the Dean resumes. "Oh, you're looking for the Dean of Arts and Sciences."

"Am I in the wrong place?" Chisame asks in slight embarrassment.

"This is Agriculture. Arts and Sciences is located in another part of town in Komaba."

Agriculture? Chisame doesn't want to be a farmer! Or an eco-freak! At least not yet.

Chisame now tries to excuse herself. "Miss Dean, I apologize for the intrusion."

"Don't worry about it. A lot of people get their campuses mixed up the first time around."

"Well, I'd better get going now."

Chisame quickly motions her way towards the exit. However, before stepping out of the first door out, the Dean of Agriculture gives her one piece of advice.

"Hasegawa-san, I know you have a lot to think about right now, but please do take your time visit us again. Well, probably not me since I'm always busy, but a lot of departments around here and, sigh, the entire university is probably willing to meet with you. I am hoping in my part that you would eventually choose Agriculture, but that's your choice, not mine. If you need directions to Komaba, just ask the secretary."

* * *

Finally, Chisame is in the right place, or at least she hopes so. The sign of the door says "The Dean of Arts and Sciences". Appointment? Well, she called ahead from Agriculture's office, and the secretary of the Dean of Arts and Sciences said that he will be waiting eagerly awaiting her arrival. Everything seems to be in place this time. She just hopes the Aggies are not setting her up so they can get her for themselves. 

Chisame takes a deep breath, then knocks on the door.

"Come in!"

Chisame enters, and looks at a young woman who, judging from the voice from the phone call earlier, appears to be the secretary for this office.

"Hello"

"Ah," the young woman replied, "you must be Hasegawa-san from the phone call earlier."

"Yes"

"Then come on in. The Dean's expecting you." the secretary said as she points Chisame to the back room where the Dean is.

Chisame thanks the secretary and enters the Dean's room. Now, unlike the vast, exhoborant setting that describes the Principal's Office in Mahora, the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences is a small, simple room which is painted white. Everything seems to look messy, yet at the same time somewhat organized. Seated behind the desk, which is buried under a great amount of paperwork, is the Dean.

"Ah, Hasegawa Chisame-san, it's nice to finally meet you," said the middle-aged man in a soft, yet clear voice. "I see that you have gotten lost and found yourself in Agriculture instead." He then let out a short laugh.

"Ah, yeah, ha-ha-ha" Chisame lets out a nervous laugh.

"I've heard a few things about you from Konoemon-san. I'm guessing you are sort of confused right now and have a lot of questions to ask me, am I right?"

"Umm, yes"

"I'm all ears. Fire away."

Chisame begins, "Well, Mr. Dean, you said in the letter that I'm supposed to register for courses tomorrow. But the truth is…well…I have no idea which courses I should take. I don't even know what to major in yet."

The Dean then types a few strokes on his keyboard, and looks at the computer monitor to look at Chisame's profile.

"So, you really did not declare a department of preference when you made your application."

"That's right."

"Well, it's sort of unusual for someone to do so in this day and age, but the regulations do state that you don't have to declare a major until your third year here. So, right now, there would be no problems for you being undeclared. Now, most departments do require pre-requisite courses in the first and second year level, so I do suggest that you at least start thinking about it and consulting the department that you may be interested in."

A few moments of silence follows, with Chisame digesting and contemplating what the Dean has just told her. The Dean, with a concerned look in his face, asks Chisame.

"I hope I didn't confuse you with that one. Want me to repeat it?"

"Not really. I understand what you meant. I'm just thinking about…well, I don't know—I just have no idea what to take."

"I see"

The Dean then turns his chair around, and pulls out a booklet from a file cabinet. He then hands the booklet to the inquiring student.

"Well, Hasegawa-san, this is the University Calendar. It has all the rules and regulations that you need to know, and most that you probably will never care about. It's a good idea to have one of these in possession. Now, the part that you will probably be most interested about is the list of departments, majors, and all the necessary courses needed to complete a degree in that major. You follow me?"

Chisame nodded. However, she still has a nagging question.

"Well, I know that this is extremely useful information that you've given me, I still have no idea what courses to take."

"Well, Hasegawa-san, I can't really answer that question for you. True, everyone has to take at least two Japanese courses to earn a degree here, but other than that, what you take is entirely up to you." The Dean pauses for a moment, the resumes. "Let me tell you what: you're still young. Go take courses in topics that you are interested in. I'm sure there's bound to be a few around this University to catch your eye. Visit the departments, they'll be happy to show you around. Besides, you have seven years to finish your degree."

"Umm, Mr. Dean, I thought that's four years."

"Well, most students finish it in four. I don't really know what's the rush. The good ones usually take five years; it may be counter-intuitive but that's because they really want to know their stuff well. But regulations state that you have a maximum of seven years."

"I don't think I'll be staying here for seven years." Chisame commented.

"You are still fourteen, Hasegawa-san. Personally, I won't mind if you stay here for ten years, but that would be against regulations. Besides, you're young, and time is on your side."

Chisame sighs, "But…it's really hard to decide, and I don't really want to end up wasting my time."

"Don't worry, you'll eventually find something that you like. Believe me, I've personally been through what you're experiencing now, though I wasn't as young as you. I suggest that you look through the Calendar, and visit the departments today. That will hopefully help you make your mind up."

Chisame rises from her seat, slightly disappointed that some nagging questions haven't been answered. She then turns and bows to the Dean. "Thank you for your time."

"It's my pleasure. If you have any more questions or concerns, just feel free to drop by."

Chisame then leaves the office, with the briefcase holding her computer in one arm, and the University Calendar on the other. As she walks down the hallway, a piece of paper falls off from the booklet unnoticed. The piece of paper is titled "Errata".

* * *

Seated on a bench in a plaza somewhere in the University, Chisame closes her eyes and thinks about all the things that she has done thus far. Apparently, everyone in the University has heard of her, and each and every department which she visited had given her a grand tour of the department, hoping to convince her to join them. 

The first department she went to was Computer Science. They had some interesting projects: some involving robots, one is involving trying to make Quantum Computers a reality. The best thing about that visit though, was that they hooked her (and her computer) up to their network. Can anyone say Ultra-High-Speed-Internet? Next was the Physics, where her eyes wondered at the gadgets and gizmos that they were using and making. Chemistry is a little bit bland for her tastes. Math—well, Computer Science and Physics referred her to them. Japanese—everyone has to take it. Philosophy sounds interesting. French—she's tired of English, so why not?

Too many choices, and she can only take a few of them at a time. It is almost evening, and most of the offices are about to close. She flips through the Calendar one more time, and a course description caught her eye. It has nothing to do with computers, but it will probably help her website become more popular than ever. Besides, the Dean told her she could take her time, so she may as well enjoy herself.

A few minutes later, she is in the Theatrical Arts Building. The office has closed for the day.

* * *

"Hmm, this is an interesting mix of courses. Japanese 105: Contemporary Literature. Computer Science 201: Introduction to Software Development. Physics 101: Introduction to Physics. Math 220: Linear Algebra. French 100: Beginner's French. Theatre 181: Backstage and Stagecraft." 

"Well, Mr. Dean, you did say to take courses that may be interesting. Hmm, maybe except for Linear Algebra, but that was recommended by the Computer Science advisor."

The Dean answers back, "I just hope you're not exerting your self too hard. I mean, six courses is an overload; people normally take five at the most. You're only fourteen, and you may not know this, but University courses are in a different league from high school courses."

Chisame hums as she examines her options. "I guess the other courses may be a challenge, but I do have plenty of experience in programming. The Computer Science advisor even told me to take a more advanced course, but I just want to make sure I'm not missing out on something here. And I'm taking the Theatre course for fun now."

The Dean hums to himself, considering what Chisame has just said. "Well, since you're a scholarship student, I'm going to allow the overload for now. But if you think that this is too much, then I would recommend that you drop one of the courses."

"I understand."

Chisame gets up, and prepares herself to leave. Suddenly, one thing did flash on her mind before she made her way out.

"Oh, Mr. Dean, I'm just wondering if you can forward my selections to the Registrar tomorrow."

The Dean smiled and replied. "Sure. I'll do that first thing in the morning. Besides, you don't want to come all the way back here tomorrow just to do that."

With that, the student and the Dean said their goodbyes for the evening.


	6. Not the Best Way to Know Someone

Ah yes, it's me again. Well, I can't say that I didn't see that coming; I have to admit I was expecting that kind of response to Chapter 5. Your comments are valid, and I do respect you for that. Now, it's still early in the story, and there's bound to be a few Chisame-only chapters early on. Don't worry, hopefully you'll be seeing that less and less as the story progress. But don't say I didn't warn you. Besides, it takes some time for sugar to dissolve in the water completely. Anyways, I stand by my decision to for Chapter 5 like that and let's leave it at that. Sometimes though, I wish I didn't update chapter-by-chapter like that, but for me, it's either that, or procrastinate and wait for months for another update.

Before I continue, I would like to do some sucking up: thank you for the 200 or so readers out there! Hope you do enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: _Love Hina_ and Hasegawa Chisame from _Mahou Sensei Negima_ are the creations of Ken Akamatsu.

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****VI: Not Exactly the Best Way to Get to Know Someone**

It is after dinner, and everyone in Hinata Inn is doing their own little thing. Su jumping up and down around the house. Motoko relaxing in the hot springs. Kitsune lounging around and watching TV with nothing better to do. Shinobu washing the dishes. Naru, alone in her room, lamenting on how she is now a _ronin_ and stabbing a voodoo doll (no, not Liddo-kun) in its most painful parts. Keitaro, somewhere in town after another 'accident' during dinner. Chisame—well, she hasn't returned from Todai yet. In short, another regular day in Hinata Inn.

Shinobu has now finished washing the dishes, and makes her way to the common room. On her way, she looks at the dining table, and sees that the plate of food she has left for Chisame is now gone. She will have to talk to Kaolla about this—if she can get herself to do so. Well, everything's finally done and in order now, and she finally has some time to herself. She now nears the common room, hearing the sounds of the TV, when she notices someone knocking on the front door.

It's probably Keitaro-sempai. She knows that Naru and Motoko are just looking out for her, but it pains her to see Keitaro being beaten up like that day after day. But at least, this is now an opportunity to spend some time with the landlord she admires.

Shinobu takes a deep breath, and opens the door. To her disappointment, she sees a courier, holding two small boxes and a clipboard with him.

"Hello, miss. I have a couple of packages for Hasegawa Chisame-san."

"Um…she lives here, but she's away right now." Shinobu stutters.

"Well, I guess I can leave this with you. Can you sign here?"

The courier hands Shinobu the clipboard. Shinobu, unsure of what to do, makes some sort of a mark in the places where the courier is pointing to. Soon, the courier turns and leaves, leaving Shinobu with the two boxes in her hands.

"Hello Shinobu! What do you have there!" as Kaolla greets Shinobu rather loudly. Maybe too loud, considering Shinobu jumped off her feet and almost dropped the parcels.

"Yeah, who was that?" Kitsune asked as she pokes her head out of the couch.

"Oh, it's a delivery man. He had a couple of packages for Chisame-sempai," as Shinobu answers the two. She continues, "I guess I'd better take them to her room."

The three of them now proceed to the second floor, and into the former Storage Room, though Shinobu doesn't really know why Su and Kitsune are following her. Shinobu then opens the door, and deposits the boxes right inside the door. As she's about to close the door, Shinobu finds to her dismay that Kitsune and Su are now inside the room.

Kitsune scratches her head as she looks around the bare room, "Hmm, the room's quite empty. Just a suitcase, a backpack, and a pile of dirty clothes."

"Hey Shinobus! You missed Chisame-chan's clothes over here!" said Su, pointing to the pile of clothes in a corner.

"Um…Chisame-sempai said not to wash her clothes…" Shinobu responded.

"That weird…she likes to be smelly?" Su wonders.

"No, no, I mean she wants to do her own laundry herself. She got mad at me yesterday for doing that."

"Hmm, interesting choice of underwear she has here," Kitsune mutters to herself as she pulls the garter of a pair of pink lace panties. "I wonder if she has a boyfriend…"

Shinobu responds whining, unable to stop the fox. "Kitsune-san. Please don't do that! Chisame-sempai will probably get mad again!"

"Aw, lighten up, Shinobu," as Kitsune tries to reassure the cook. "It's just us, so she probably wouldn't mind. If it's Keitaro, then yeah, we should tie him up, but we're just getting to know our new friend here."

"But…but…but…" Shinobu stutters incoherently as that stern lecture she was given by her Todai sempai the previous day plays over and over again in her mind.

"Ooooooh, what's this?" Su wonders to herself loudly as she rips one of the boxes apart. "Wire-less Rout-er—I wonder what kind of a toy this is?"

"Kaolla, please…" as Shinobu continues to plead to both of them as the situation spins out of control.

Unfortunately for poor Shinobu, her fellow middle-schooler just pulled out the mother-of-all-ratchet-and-screwdriver-sets from her pocket. How the young foreigner managed to fit that thing in her pocket remains a mystery. For now, the inventor begins to take the said wireless router apart, trying to figure out how it works, and what it's used for. Let the destruction begin!

"Hmm, is this some sort of a radio?" Su asks a clueless and hapless Shinobu, who of course, knows nothing about electronics and robotics. As she takes the antenna and waves it towards Shinobu's face, some wires snap off its solders.

"Oops."

With that, Shinobu's eyes widen in fear as her heart races. "K..Kaolla, y-you j-just broke Sempai's…thing…"

"Don't worry, Shinobu, I can fix this up, and it'll be better than it was before!" Su said triumphantly…for a while. "Well, that is, if I can figure out what this thing does. It looks pretty weird for a radio. That's it! I'll make Chisame-chan the greatest radio in the world!"

Sadly, Chisame doesn't want a radio.

Now, to further compound Shinobu's fears, she hears the sound of packaging tape being ripped from its box. The contents of the second box is now revealed, courtesy of our resident snoop, Kitsune.

"A camera?" Kitsune noted. "Oooh, it's a Law-Tilleri! They make really good cameras. This thing must be expensive."

"K-kitsune-sempai…not you too…" Shinobu stammers as she now enters panic mode.

"Cheese!"

A bright flash of light suddenly blinds Shinobu, followed by some sort of clicking, gears moving. After a few moments seeing stars Shinobu finally is able to re-orient herself. She spots Kitsune, who is now surprisingly quiet and now gawking at the camera she's holding.

"Um..Kitsune-san?"

Kitsune speaks very slowly, in total awe and admiration, "W-wow! This camera is awesome! I've never seen something like this before. Take a look at this, Shinobu."

Kitsune hands the camera over to Shinobu. Kitsune's right, it is not something that she, or any of the residents, have ever seen before. Before Shinobu is a Law-Telleri Model SLR-293 camera, complete with a who-knows-how-many-lens system crammed into five inches of space. But what astounds her is the LCD screen, which shows the picture Kitsune has just taken of her.

"You know, Shinobu, even with all your whining and panicky thing that's going on with you, you still manage to look cute." Kitsune told her, as Shinobu soon blushes in response to the comment.

As Shinobu stares at the wonders of modern technology, Kitsune notices a small palm-sized booklet sticking out of Chisame's backpack. It looks like one. Kitsune takes the booklet out of the backpack. Yep, it is one.

Hasegawa Chisame's bankbook.

That's right, with all the wonders and conveniences of modern technology, Chisame still keeps a bankbook. Well, the bankbook does state that it's for "Record Keeping Only", and alone cannot be used to deal with the bank in any way whatsoever. However, it may still prove somewhat useful for our ever broke and drunken friend.

Kitsune takes the said bankbook, and her eyes blew wide open as she looks at the balance column.

"W-whoa! Look at the number of digits in this thing!"

* * *

A half-empty train from Tokyo has just pulled into Hinata Train Station. Not many people live in this town, and the only passenger to disembark this time around is Chisame. She's just had a long day behind her, from going to the wrong campus, then going from department to department, to finally making her selection of courses for her first semester. Well, with all the time she ended up spending there, it's a good thing she made her visit today and not tomorrow…or worse yet, on the first day of school. 

She didn't really want to head back to the Insanitarium yet. However, her options right now are few and far between. Normally, she would just spend hours and hours online during her free time, which is of course, not yet available in the Inn. Even though she wants to go to a LAN café and do just that, she knows well that it's not best to do so at this time of the evening, especially when you're new and know very little about the area. And not just Hinata, but also all of Tokyo. Apart from the manager and some of the girls in the Inn, she really knows no one within a hundred miles from Tokyo. So she might as well go back home, eat dinner, recharge the computer batteries, and go to sleep right away.

As she walks back to the Inn from the station, she encounters a man on the streets stumbling and limping around who seems to be headed in the same direction as her. At first, she thinks that he's just some drunkard who's had too much to drink and trying to make his way back home. It's probably best to walk briskly, pass him, and not look back. However, once she catches up to the man and tries to avoid any eye contact with him, she realizes that the man isn't drunk at all; it looks like he's been beaten up by a gang or something. When she finally turns head and looks at the man straight on, she discovers that the man is no other than the manager of the Inn.

"Mr. Manager?" a concerned Chisame asked. "What happened to you?"

"Ah, Chisame-san," Keitaro replied as he laughs nervously, "it's nothing. So where have you been?"

Ignoring the manager's query, Chisame follows up on her own question. "Nothing? It looks like you've just been in a fight with some gangsters or something."

"Oh, this," as Keitaro pathetically looks at himself, "let's just say that Motoko and Narusegawa sent me here."

Chisame now quickly recalls the _ki_ attack launched by Motoko the previous day, which narrowly missed her and sent the manager flying across the room. Well, the kendo girl certainly is a strong person, but it's beyond her comprehension (yet) that such an attack would actually send something—or someone across town. And now she's wondering how the doppelganger is involved in this.

"R-right…" Chisame responds in a somewhat dismissive tone, thinking that the manager is trying to make light of the situation and joke around. "Now really, what happened? I don't want to wake up one night and find myself surrounded by the yakuza."

Keitaro sighs as he tries to reassure Chisame. "You don't have to worry about that. This town's a pretty peaceful place, and the most dangerous people here, I believe, are Narusegawa and Motoko." Keitaro then lets out a snicker as he resumes, "I don't see any reason at all why they would attack you, with you being a girl and all."

Well, it makes some sort of sense for Chisame. She did see the swordswoman's attack yesterday. And she noted how her look-alike seems to have a very short fuse the day before that. And she can also recall the rants that those two made during that dinner. On the other hand, maybe those two and the manager don't really get along quite that well, though from the looks of it, the manager's been on the losing side so far. The manager seems nice and gentle, but perhaps there's some sad history behind those two girls that make them act that way. After that incident yesterday, she knows it is best not to make any quick judgments about anyone right now, save for that scheming drunkard, whom she definitely knows she cannot trust.

"But still, why did they attack you just like that? It seems that everyone in the Inn hates you."

"Well, not everyone; just Motoko and Narusegawa. Kitsune just likes to tease everyone around, while Su simply wants to have someone to play with. Shinobu—well, I know the two of you got off to a bad start, but she's a gentle person who wouldn't hurt a fly. Believe me, once you get to know them, you'll easily get along with them."

Though Chisame was somewhat comforted by Keitaro's comments, there's still one thing that bothered her: "But Mr. Manager, _you_ didn't."

"Sigh, I just wish everyone was just like you and Shinobu. Then everything would be nice and peaceful..."

Chisame cringed and had a cold shiver in her back when the manager wished for peace. Those are not the words she wanted to hear out of him.

Keitaro continues, "But, then again, the world would be a boring place if everyone's the same."

As the two continue their way back to the Inn, Keitaro's stomach suddenly growls in hunger.

"Hehehe," Keitaro laughs nervously, "I guess I didn't get a chance to eat the dinner tonight. I'd bet they're done by now."

"Well, I guess we better head somewhere to eat," Chisame said. "I have yet to eat dinner myself. Besides, I don't want a repeat of what happened two nights ago."

Chisame scans the local area, and spots a quaint little teahouse just around the corner.

"Oh, why don't we eat out over there? My treat!" Chisame said as she points to the teahouse.

"Umm, are you sure about that, Chisame-san?"

"Well, I tried to take the caretaker of my old dorm out to dinner as a thank-you before I came here. Well, the good old man beat me to the punch and ended up paying for the bill before I even got a chance to do so myself. I insisted, but he suggested taking the caretaker of my new dorm out for lunch once I come here. So don't worry about it."

"T-thanks, Chisame…" Keitaro said, not knowing whether to be grateful, or feel guilty about exploiting a young girl out of money. "But, that teahouse…"

"Oh, is it bad?"

"No, not really. Not as good as Shinobu's cooking, but still good."

"Mr. Manager, I don't want you to pass out again. Besides, I made a promise to the old man, so I'm sort of obliged to do this."

"A promise, eh? At least you made a simple promise." Keitaro muttered to himself.

"Did you say something, Mr. Manager?"

"Oh, nothing Chisame-san. And please, you don't have to be all formal around me; just call me Keitaro."

"Well, maybe one day, Mr. Manager. Right now, that would just be weird. Anyways, let's go eat."

Being led by Chisame, Keitaro enters the teahouse. He didn't really want to go here today, but after Chisame mentioned the word 'promise', he might as well talk to someone about it…and it's not Chisame.

The lady in the teahouse seems annoyed with the couple walking in the teahouse at this time of night, "Sorry, the store's about to close—oh, it's you, Keitaro, come in."

"Wait," Chisame said as she takes a second look at the lady, "You're the Manager's Aunt, aren't you."

"Hello Aunt Haruka…" Keitaro whimpered in a somewhat melancholic voice.

"Don't call me 'aunt'; I'm still young, you know." Haruka said to the two with a slight irritation in her voice. "So what brings the two of you here?"

"The Manager said that they've already eaten their dinner at the Inn. I just came back from Todai, and I'm wondering if we can have something to eat here instead. Don't worry, I'll be paying."

"Keitaro, what's up with you?" Haruka said as she reprimands the boy, "You're now making the girl pay for dinner."

"B-but Aunt Haruka…"

"Don't worry, Urashima-san. It was my idea to do this in the first place."

The aunt and nephew look at Chisame, not knowing to whom she was addressing.

Haruka finally breaks the awkward silence. "Well, you don't have to pay this time, Hasegawa-san. Besides, that guy's my nephew, and I was thinking of dishing up something for myself anyways."

* * *

As she climbs the stairs leading to Hinata Inn alone, Chisame begins to think about the conversation the three of them had during dinner. She learned that time that the Manager had his eyes set for Todai, only to fail the entrance exams three times. Now, even though she found the exam…well, not easy but also not difficult, she never really realized how hard the exam should really be until she heard of Keitaro's plight. To further compound his woes, he apparently promised a girl a long time ago that they should some day meet up and go to Tokyo U together. Well, she had the urge to tell that that was the lamest reason why to go to Tokyo U, but she managed to restrain herself. Besides, her reason would rank even below the manager's: she just wanted to go away from Mahora to get some peace and quiet. And from what has happened so far and she's been hearing from the manager, she's probably not getting any. After dinner, the manager decided to stay behind and talk to his aunt for a while, and told Chisame to go on ahead. 

After a long climb up the stairs, Chisame finally reaches the doors of Hinata Inn. As she passes by the lobby and heads upstairs to her room, she can hear the resident cook squealing and begging and urging and pleading someone to leave the room. She doesn't like the sound of that, or where the sound was coming from.

She walks down the hallway, and reaches her room. The door is open, and inside the room is the said resident cook, the hyperactive foreigner, and sigh, the troublemaker.

Chisame carefully puts her briefcase containing the laptop down, and clears her throat as she tries to make a straight face, which of course, she does so well.

"Hello. May I ask what the three of you are doing in my room?" Chisame addressed the three as she tries to keep her composure.

"Ch-Chisame-sempai!" Shinobu yelps in fear, still holding the digital SLR camera. "I-I tried to…packages…but th-they…"

Chisame scans the room, and besides Su she sees what remains of what looked like a wireless router.

"My wireless router!" Chisame exclaimed, managing not to shout nor scream. "What did you do to it you little twirp!"

With tears welling in her eyes, Shinobu tries to mutter her apology. "Ch-Chisame-sempai, I'm sorry…"

"Umm, I-I was speaking to _gaijin-san_ over there…" as Chisame tries to tell the crybaby that it's not her fault this time.

Unfortunately, the crybaby takes off and tries to leave the room. She runs into Chisame on her way out, thus tripping and dropping Chisame's brand-new digital SLR camera on the floor. Needless to say, the camera is now a write-off.

"M-My new camera…" Chisame mutters to herself, trying not to make herself heard and complicate things with the housemaid even further.

"Ah, relax, Chisame-chan, why are you getting so worked up about?" Kitsune said in a rather all too casual voice. "Besides, it's not as if you can't afford a new one," she continues as she waves the bankbook around.

"What did you say!?" Chisame responded growling at Kitsune.

Kitsune looks at her hand, and sees the bankbook still there. "Oops."

"The two of you, out, now!" Chisame commanded the two remaining intruders.

"Aw, Chisame-chan, but…"

"Out, out, out, out…OUT!!!"

"Aw, Chisame, you're no fun!" Kitsune said in a playful tone.

Kitsune then gets up and shows herself out of the room.

Chisame now turns her attention to Su: "And you…"

"Yes?" Su responded, oblivious to the situation, and smiling back at Chisame.

Now, Naru just happens to be walking down the hallway, wondering what all the fuss is about. All of a sudden, narrowly missing her, she sees Su flying out of the door, and getting smacked head-first into a pole. Apparently, despite being weak, Chisame managed to literally toss the last of the intruders out of her room.

"Su, what's going on around here?" Naru asks.

"WHEEEE! That was fun! Can we do that again, Chisame-chan!"

Naru turns to the door, and sees an extremely irritated and grumpy Chisame staring back at Su. Chisame then proceeds to slam the door shut, and lock herself in for the rest of the night.

* * *

_p.s._ Guess which camera brand I'm spoofing here. Winner gets bragging rights 


	7. Some Late Arrivals

Hello dudes. Well, this is going to be one of those chapters where pretty much nothing happens. And the change in POV may be weird, but there is precedent for that in Chapter I. Anyways, thank you for all you readers out there. As long as there are readers out there, that can motivate me to keep on writing...hopefully.

Oh yeah, with Christmastime coming, expect updates on longer intervals the coming few weeks. Just bear with me, okay? Enjoy!

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**VII: Some Late Arrivals**

It's another sleepless night for Narusegawa Naru. The night went by just like most other nights that Naru has spent over the past three years studying for the Tokyo U entrance exams. The room is dim, and the silence broken by the tapping of the pencil and shuffling of papers. But this time around, she's studying not to pass the exams; she's studying to find out how she failed it. Again and again, she browsed through her study guides, looking for questions that were similar to what she had encountered during the test. Again and again, she berated herself for missing such simple questions. How can she fail? The only reason she can think of at the top of her head right now is the same reason that she have been telling herself the past few weeks or so: she was distracted by that stupid little pervert.

Naru puts her glasses on, and looks at her alarm clock. Six twenty-two in the morning. Yup, another sleepless night for her. She has been too depressed as of late, and the graduation ceremony the previous afternoon was a needless reminder for her that she is now a _ronin_. Might as well sleep away the troubles for now. As she reaches for the table lamp to turn it off and retire for the night—or morning in this case, her nose caught the scent of food cooking.

Naru looks at her clock again. Six twenty-three in the morning. Though Shinobu usually wakes up relatively early in the morning even on the weekends, Naru knows that the resident cook normally cooks breakfast an hour later. Though the aroma is quite savoury, she could tell that this isn't the normal fare that Shinobu prepares everyday. The only other person that could possibly be awake at this hour is Motoko, and she definitely knows that this is not Motoko's cooking. Besides, the swordswoman would be too busy training right now to cook something.

As much as she wants to go to sleep, her stomach now demands for her to feed it. She reluctantly leaves her room, and heads for the kitchen. As she draws closer to the kitchen, she hears the sound of the knife chopping and violently hitting the cutting board, as if someone's being murdered and brutally butchered. Then the food suddenly sizzles rather loudly, rather like hot oil being poured onto bare skin. Sounds like a war zone, but it smells good though!

Naru finally reaches the kitchen, and lo and behold, the kitchen not only sounds like a war zone, but it also looks like one. The only telltale signs of civilization around are a huge pile of pepper-sausage-and-cheese omelette, and another big pile of what looks like fried shredded potato. It looks enough to feed about thirty kindergarteners, and a growing teenage girl. And in the middle of this whole mess is not Shinobu, but the new tenant.

Naru watches as Chisame unceremoniously dumps the last of the omelette from the pan and into the pile. Though Naru can chuckle inwardly about Chisame's undignified way of cooking, with egg and pieces of potato all over the current cook's clothes and hair, she could somewhat tell that the young girl has done this many times before. And although the food is presented as two large piles, there's somewhat a degree of presentation in it that makes you want to dig in. Well, Naru right now has the urge to literally dive in, and wallow in the food as she eats. Fortunately, she resists the urge.

Well, Naru might as well make herself know right now. Besides, the young Todai student appears to be in a foul mood.

"Hello Chisame-chan."

"Oh, hello," Chisame responded.

"Wow, that's…a lot of food you cooked there."

"Argh," as Chisame slaps herself in the head, "I forgot that I no longer have to feed thirty kids!"

"So, you're the cook for your dorm in your old school?" Naru inquires.

"Well, not really. The caretaker normally did that. Though once in a while, the old man sleeps in and I had to step up and do the cooking."

"Anyways, it's nice of you to wake up early and cook something for all of us," a grateful and hungry Naru said.

"I just happened to wake up early today. I guess I slept too early last night. Besides, I found nothing edible around, restaurants are closed this early in the day, so I decided to make something simple."

"You must really like cooking, huh?"

"Actually, I hate it. I hate to cook at all." Chisame said with full disdain in her voice. "It's too much work. The only time I cook is when I absolutely have to do it at all."

That explains why it sounded like everyone was being killed.

"So, what's in this one?" Naru hesitantly asks as she points at one of the heaps of food.

"Well, the omelette has some green and red peppers, sausages, and cheese."

Naru takes a fork, sticks it into the pile, takes some of the omelette, and puts it in her mouth.

"Wow, munch this is actually good." Naru said with her mouth full as she continues to dig in.

"Ahem," Chisame interrupts Naru as she points to the plates.

"Oops, hehehe…sorry."

* * *

Narusegawa spent most of the breakfast trying to decipher the person who just cooked breakfast named Hasegawa Chisame. It has already been three days since she arrived, and what she knows about her thus far is that she's fourteen, and she will be going to Todai. Well, she already knew that the first day, and you can't really get to know more about someone if that person spends most of the day out of home and spends the rest of the evening locked in her room. She did notice that Chisame's almost always grumpy whenever she sees her, and the breakfast was no such exemption. Naru's guessing that Chisame's still fuming about that camera that Su apparently broke (we all know that was Shinobu), and makes a note in her head to reprimand the Molmolian and make her apologize before she goes to sleep. But as the breakfast, or her part in it, wore on, there was no such luck trying to talk to Chisame. She was such in a bitter mood that Naru dared not even start something. 

About halfway though the meal, some of the other residents also begin to gather around the dining room. Well, three more of them to be exact. First one was Motoko, who just finished her daily morning routine. With Motoko and Naru together, the pair can't help but think that our messy cook keep giving them rather strange and mysterious glances, as if she were suspicious they were up to something. Then the meal seemed to take a rather lively turn when the manager arrived. Nothing perverted or accidental this time, just a normal conversation on why Chisame doesn't like to cook at all, despite the fact that she's good at it. However, Motoko and Naru acted more like eavesdroppers than participants in that conversation. They're also stunned by the revelation that the newcomer is actually having a conversation with the manager with no problems at all. The only other person in the Inn who could do that is Kitsune, and those conversations are often of the flirtacious kind. Finally, Shinobu came down, expecting to do some cooking herself. She was rather surprised and amazed on how good Chisame's cooking was. So imagine the lovely middle schooler's dismay when she finally set foot in her kitchen, which resembled Berlin at the end of World War II. Tears welled up in her eyes, thinking this was her sempai's way of vengeance after she made her angry the past two days. This time, she didn't run away to her room, but toughed it out hoping to restore her kitchen to its former glory.

Now, Naru lets out a yawn, which reminded her that she needs to sleep—pronto. As she's about to enter the stairwell to head back to her room, she hears a knock on the door. It's probably Haruka; she does drop by for breakfast from time to time. Naru grudgingly turns back, and opens the front door. Surprisingly, it's not Haruka she sees before her, but some strange male in coveralls, carrying a toolbox and a spool of wires.

"Hello miss, may I speak to the manager of this building please?"

"And who might _you_ be?" asked the irritated and sleepless Naru.

"Oh, sorry miss, I'm just the electrician. I'm here about installing some new electrical outlets here."

Naru doesn't know why on earth Keitaro would hire an electrician just to install new electrical outlets around, when Su can easily accomplish the same thing. Then again, she has to admit she wouldn't want Su to do just that, with all the 'extra features' and 'upgrades' that comes with her work.

"Oh, so you're here," the manager said from Naru's back, which of course startled her and almost prompted a beating if she weren't too tired. "I'll show you where we need the outlets."

Keitaro and the electrician then proceed to the stairwell, where they met up with Chisame.

"So, is this the electrician, Mr. Manager?"

"Yes, Chisame-san, would you mind if…"

In an irritated tone, Chisame quips, "Well, it's about time he showed up."

"Oh, I'm sorry for the delay, miss," as the electrician apologizes.

And so the three disappear from Naru's view as they head upstairs, as the Great Hinata Inn Makeover begins.

* * *

Naru can't sleep. She can't sleep at all. With all the banging and drilling from one of the rooms below her, she won't be getting rest anytime soon due to all that noise. First, it was the electrician. Now, it's some guy from the phone company. What makes things worse for Naru right now is that the person from the phone company is installing new phone jacks in all of the rooms in the Inn, and right now, he is in her room. At least the electrician only had to work on Chisame's room. At first, she can't understand why Keitaro would want to install all these phone jacks in every room. Then a sobering thought hits her: he may be intending to turn the Inn back into a hotel someday in the future. She just hopes that future is not the near future. 

Without the peace she needs to get to sleep, Naru decides to settle down on the couch in the Common Room. Normally, being on a couch would lull anyone to sleep, but unfortunately, everyone in the Inn is there—well, except for Keitaro, who is busy directing the electrician and the phone guy around, and Chisame, who is in her room using her computer despite the chaos around her. Naru is now regretting that unnecessary all-nighter that she pulled off. She's tired, she's groggy, and the last thing she wants right now is more visitors.

Guess what? There's another knock on the door.

Naru swears this is all a conspiracy Keitaro has against her. Make her all tired and groggy enough to make her pass out, or worse, not pay attention to anything anyone says at all. Then that would be the perfect opportunity to strike at her and take advantage of her. The only comfort she now has right now is knowing that the other girls are currently with her right now, and none of them, especially Motoko, would let any harm or shame come to her.

Reluctantly, she gets up and heads to the door. She swiftly opens the door wide, and glares at yet another man in front of her.

"What are _you_ here for?" Naru demanded.

The man answers back, "Umm, miss…I have some parcels for Hasegawa Chisame."

"Oh, you're that person from yesterday!" Shinobu said from the Common Room, recognizing that voice from the previous evening. "I'll go call her right now."

Shinobu then proceeds upstairs to let Chisame know of her packages, not wanting a repeat of the disaster that happened yesterday.

Naru was about to turn back and head back to the couch when he hears the courier clear his throat.

"Miss, I may need some help this time. Last night's packages were small, but I dare not carry all those big boxes I have for Hasegawa-san alone this time, especially up a flight of stairs. I know this place was built before the war, but I swear this is hell for all mailman and couriers out there."

Soon enough, Chisame shows up at the lobby. Though calm on the outside, Naru can see from Chisame's eyes and a slight smile on her lips that she's excited about the arrival of this package, as if she is now being reunited with long lost family.

Keitaro and the rest of the girls decide to chip up and help the poor delivery man bring all these parcels into Chisame's room. There are three boxes to be exact: a big box, a bigger box, and an even bigger box. The biggest box is surprisingly light for its size, which means it most probably contains clothes, so Naru, Shinobu and Su are able to handle that. The medium-sized box is somewhat heavier, so that went to Kitsune and Motoko, with Motoko thinking of this as training, and Kitsune doing this after some guilty persuasion by Shinobu. The smallest box, about a square metre in size, was the heaviest one of all, with Keitaro and the courier delegated to that job. And they move these boxes with Chisame looking on, wanting to make sure that nothing funny happens this time around. She can probably tolerate and forget about what happened yesterday, but if the same thing were to happen this time around, she would just explode. In the end though, all three boxes are in the former Storage Room safe and sound.

* * *

It has been a long day for everyone. A lot of visitors, and a lot of things to do. Shinobu did manage to clean up the kitchen and restore it to its former order and cleanliness. Su's complaining to Keitaro on why she didn't get to install the electrical and phone system after finally learning why they had visitors in the first place. Motoko is now in her evening meditation in her room. Kitsune is taking a bath after a long and rather boring day. Naru is now sound asleep in her room after being awake for thirty-six hours straight. Keitaro is walking around the house, quite grateful that for once, he never got hit by either Motoko or Naru. 

Meanwhile, in the former Storage Room, all is dark, with the room illuminated solely by the glow of a laptop's LCD screen. With the screen's output reflecting from her glasses, Chisame lets out a wide grin as she happily taps on her computer. Sure, everything's not set up yet; the boxes are still sealed. But with the Internet finally within Hinata Inn, Chisame whispers to herself as she browses through Chiu's webpage for the first time in what seemed ages for her.

"Hello world. I am finally back!"


	8. Introduction to the Internet

Hello everyone, I'm back! I would have updated sooner, but life got in the way, with Christmas, and New Years to deal with. But as with everything, real life gets priority. Hopefully, I can get the ball rolling with the new year.

Now, based on the reviews, I understand that some of you have questions. Now, usually, I'd tell everyone to let the story do the telling, but if I were to tell that to **Jace**, then he'll have to wait 'till the end of the story to have his question answered. The answer is no, none of the others in the Mahora gang will follow Chisame. Well, at least that's my intention. The story's way too complicated (for me) to deal with as it is. As for **PuffyHair**'s comment, I'll take you on a wild goose chase. (Now, this isn't really canon; I used some artistic freedom in this) The Principal in Mahora said that Chisame had been staying in the same room ever since she started to attend school. And she said she cooked for thirty or so kids. Put two and two together and guess where she was staying? Winner gets an imaginary T-shirt!

Speaking of canon, congratulations to **FayteAngel** for guessing the right answer for that challenge from Chapter Six. As promised, you get bragging rights! Law- Canon. Artillery- Cannon. Get it?

Now, I was originaly thinking that the residents are to be extremely ignorant of the Net for the rest of the story. Then I thought of something fun. Anyways, enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: _Love Hina_ and Hasegawa Chisame from _Mahou Sensei Negima_ are the creations of Ken Akamatsu. And I don't own any rights to Pomegranate...er, I mean, Apple Computers either! Don't sue me!

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**VIII: Introduction to the Internet**

Ah, breakfast: the first meal of the day. Well, we're not quite there yet; Shinobu is still in the process of cooking it. For some reason, she woke up an hour early today despite today being a Sunday. Perhaps somewhere deep in her subconscious, she's afraid of the mess and destruction that happened in the kitchen the day before. Sure, she knows that Chisame-sempai meant well, and is quite a decent cook except for the manner in which she did it. This time around though, it seems that everyone in the Inn is still sleeping—except for Motoko of course. Oh well, that will mean more time for her to cook something special for everyone.

Soon enough, Hinata Inn starts to buzz with activity as one by one, everyone wakes up and begin their morning routine. All that installation and upgrades previous day gave everyone with very little to do that day (except for Keitaro and Chisame), and if you've got nothing to do and can't do anything about it, you sleep. Even Kitsune, who has no morning routine to speak of (since she's almost never awake on mornings anyways), is in the bathroom washing her face.

Eventually, everyone gathers around the table at the dining room to eat breakfast. Well, not exactly everyone, though will take some time to realize someone is missing.

"Alright! Let's eat!" Su exclaims as she starts to wolf down her portion.

"Man, everyone's up early," Kitsune said as she lets out another yawn. "Are we going somewhere today? I don't recall planning on going out somewhere yesterday."

Motoko responds, "No, we aren't going anywhere today, as far as I know. And no, you weren't drunk either. It would be good for you if you wake up early once in a while, Kitsune-san."

"I guess you're right about that one, Motoko. I can't believe I haven't tasted Shinobu-chan's breakfast for ages!"

"Well, it's all that stupid Keitaro's fault that we're all up like this," as Naru complains. "I would have gotten some sleep yesterday if it weren't for all those renovations you did yesterday."

Keitaro stammers back, "B-but Narusegawa, Chisame-san needs some power outlets so she could use her computer…"

"Then why did you give her that room!"

"H-how would I know there wouldn't be any outlets?"

"You're the manager. It's your responsibility to know, baka."

As the one-sided argument heats up, Kitsune interrupts them wondering about something. "Speaking of Chisame-chan, I don't see her here right now."

"Oh, I guess she's still sleeping. She was probably up late last night with the place finally having Internet," said Keitaro.

"Internet? What's that?" Su asks.

"Yeah, she did mention something about that when she first came here." Naru added.

"Hey!" Kitsune complains, "How come she got what she wants that quickly!? I knew she was a brat!"

Keitaro looks at the girls before him quizzically before asking them, "Don't tell me none of you knows what the Internet is in this day and age."

"It better not be something perverted!" Motoko commented.

Keitaro's face quickly turns from a healthy light brown, to deep red upon hearing what Motoko said, knowing well what the wonderful network of interconnected computers is capable of bringing. Naru and Motoko, seeing Keitaro's face change colour like that, quickly come to a (somewhat incomplete) conclusion that the swordswoman was right.

"Urashima, how dare you bring such filth—whatever that is, into this place!"

"Keitaro! Why you!"

"B-but, that's not everything that the Internet is…"

He shouldn't have said the word 'everything'.

"So you say there's more, Urashima!? I won't hear of this anymore! Rock Splitting Technique!"

"Naru Punch!"

And so, our unfortunate chap gets blown through the dining room wall, and sent flying at full speed towards the Tea Shop.

* * *

After a while, the girls have finally finished eating breakfast. Shinobu is now busy cleaning up the kitchen and the dishes, while Su is back in her room working on a new robot or something. Meanwhile, Kitsune, Motoko, and Naru are lounging around in the common area, discussing the supposedly poor predicament that the new tenant is in. 

"Poor Chisame-chan. I can't believe Keitaro would just go ahead and take advantage of her like that." Naru remarks as she shakes her head.

"Yes, Urashima must definitely pay for this should he decide to show his face here again," the swordswoman adds.

Naru continues, "And no wonder she seems angry most of the time."

However, Kitsune seems to have a different take on this. "I can't believe what I'm hearing here! You think Chisame is the victim here? First of all, don't you find it suspicious at all that she won't let Shinobu-chan do her laundry? What's she trying to hide, anyways? Next, I saw what's in her bank account—and it's huge!"

"You went through her stuff, Kitsune?" Naru exclaims. "No wonder she looked so mad that night!"

Kitsune continues in a somewhat exaggerated manner, "Just hear me out here, Naru. She comes home late every night so far, and she seems to be too chummy with Keitaro. Which can only mean one thing…"

The two other girls' eyes grow wide open as they come upon a false realization.

Naru gasps, "Oh…my…god…"

"She can't be a—prost…" Motoko mutters as she shakes her head trying to deny her conclusion.

Naru tries to reason the whole thing out, trying to explain why Hasegawa would seemingly do such a thing. "But, I mean, she was probably forced to do this. And at such a young age. Poor girl."

Kitsune counters, "But with her bank account like that? And a full scholarship to Todai?"

The three of them suddenly stop their conversation as they hear footsteps approaching from the stairwell. They wouldn't want Su or Shinobu to be hearing of this subject, nor would they want Chisame to know that they were talking about them. They wait to see who was approaching them. A few seconds later, a yawining Chisame shows up, wearing her glasses, and a pair of pink pajamas. Chisame turns towards the kitchen when sees the three girls looking at her from the common room.

"Oh, good morning," as Chisame greets them.

"Ahahahahahaha…good morning," Naru responds in a nervous laughter.

Chisame can sense that something was amiss among those three. The look-alike seems somewhat nervous, while the kendo girl looks at her in pity for some reason. The troublemaker, though, seem to be glaring straight at her. Whatever they were talking about right before they paused, she knows that they were definitely talking about her. The question is, what they were talking about to get such varied and weird reactions.

Chisame decides to break the uneasy silence.

"Umm, do you guys need something?"

Suddenly, Naru jumps out of her seat, runs towards Chisame, and hugs her.

"There, there, Chisame-chan. You are safe with us now. No pervert will come anywhere near you from now on."

"Er, what are you talking about?" a puzzled Chisame asks.

Naru continues, "And don't worry, with us here, you won't be needing that Internet thing anymore…"

"What!?" Chisame exclamins in a somewhat raised tone as she breaks free from Naru's embrace. "You want to get rid of the Internet? But that's my primary means of contacting my parents everyday!"

"Contacting your parents?" Motoko asks.

"Yes. Now that I think about it, you guys probably have no idea what the Internet is, am I right?"

Naru and Motoko both nod in unison, while Kitsune's expression changes from outright contempt to confusion and curiousity.

Chisame sighs as she continues, "I guess I'd better give all of you a crash course in the Internet."

* * *

After failing to find something to eat in the kitchen, which launched her in a grumpy mood, Chisame told the swordswoman to call everyone to the common room for today's lesson. Now that everyone (excluding Keitaro) is there, the tenants of the inn are buzzing among themselves, trying to speculate what the Internet is all about. Soon enough, Chisame shows up with her laptop, some wires, and a modem in her arms. 

"Wow! Chisame-chan has brought in some toys!" Su exclaims. "What are we going to play!?"

Apprehensive, Chisame looks at the blond-haired foreigner. The same person who has destroyed that state-of-the-art wireless router she bought from which is why she's holding the modem and the wires right now. She's going to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't get anywhere near her laptop.

"We're not going to play this time around. I'm just here to show you guys how the Internet works." Chisame responds.

"So, what is this Internet thing?" Kitsune asks.

"In a nutshell, it's a big network of computers connected to one another and that can communicate with each other."

"Oh, I have a computer!" Su said.

"You do?" Chisame stated, unable to believe that someone who has a computer hasn't heard of the Internet yet.

"Can my computer use this Internet too?"

"I suppose. Depends on what you have though. Do you mind showing it to me?"

The group now proceeds to follow the ever hyperactive Su upstairs to her room. Now, Chisame can't help wonder what type of computer this foreigner has. As long as it has an Ethernet port, it should do. Besides, if she could use Su's computer for the lesson, she doesn't have to use hers and risk getting viruses from their trials and errors. She crosses her fingers and hopes that it isn't a 286.

Eventually they reach Su's room. Su cheerfully opens the door and invites the guests in. The reaction on Chisame's face is a mix of awe and confusion, wondering whether this place would even house a computer.

"Wow, it's a jungle out here…literally." Chisame said.

Su responds. "Thank you, Chisame-chan! Let me show you my workstation!"

As Su bounces easily across the room, the others are having a hard time navigating their way through the brush. Chisame herself is beginning to doubt if Su's so-called computer is merely an abacus. Well, a few minutes later, she was proven wrong upon seeing a large mainframe computer located in one of the corners of the room.

Chisame is quite fascinated by the sight before her. Yes, the machine looks dated. But it's a system she's never seen before, and she finds herself wanting to know more about it. At first glance at the screen, it seems to be using an operating system which she had never encountered before. And she also has this strong urge to take the hardware apart to know what's inside it. It was then when she realized that Su was probably thinking of the same thing when she took apart the now ruined wireless router. Well, at least she now has a bargaining chip for her to 'study and research' the foreigner's computer.

"Wow, this computer is quite—different." Chisame muttered to herself.

"Yeah! I use it to design and configure my new robots and inventions," Su proudly proclaims. "Wanna see my inventions?"

While everyone else remains in awe of their surroundings that is Kaolla Su's room, Chisame just can't help but wonder if the person she's talking to right now would be just like a certain mad scientist she knew back in Mahora, fused with a certain kung-fu girl. Heck, she can't help but wonder if the two of them are related to this hyperactive bag of caffeine. But right now, she has a 'class' to teach.

"Um, not right now. So, where are the communication ports?"

Su proudly shows Chisame, "Right here…and here…and here, and here…"

Well, the device _is_ meant to configure robots, though the number of ports would border on overkill.

"I mean, a port that can fit this wire," as Chisame shows the inventor an Ethernet cable.

"Oh, I guess it's somewhere here…found it! Yes! I finally get to use this little hole!"

Chisame kneels down to the aforementioned port to connect the cable when she notices a pomegranate symbol engraved on the network card. Acting on a hunch, she motions herself to the keyboard and despite not knowing the weird symbols printed on the keyboard, she presses three keys in a precise sequence. Looking at the monitor, the interface that was on there suddenly turns into something that's more familiar to Chisame.

"I knew it," she said as she smirks confidently. "It's a Whack!"

* * *

After a few minutes of setting up, which included changing the keyboard and doing minor re-configuration among all things, Chisame started things off by browsing at web pages. Everyone in the room is at least interested in what this newcomer is about to show everyone. Su is already excited about the new uses that the previously 'useless features' in her computer can do. Shinobu, while fascinated about the stuff Chisame is talking about, is kind of lost in all of the technical aspects of it. Naru and Motoko now somehow have a grasp of what the World Wide Web is, while Kitsune is somewhat fascinated that you can now read the latest news on the internet. 

"So, you can really read the news with this!" Kitsune said.

"Yes" Chisame replied.

"I'm wondering if you can use that to find publishers who may be interested in looking at my writing."

Chisame looks back at Kitsune. She never knew that the bum was a writer. Perhaps this lesson would stop her from prying into her room for 'inspiration' and relieve her of her boredom.

"Here, why don't you give it a try?" Chisame said as she motions the fox to take her place.

Kitsune then tries to recall what Chisame just told everyone a few minutes before. With two fingers, she awkwardly types then while saying it out loud syllable by syllable, types 'publisher'. She then clicks on one of the entries, and soon enough, the monitor now displays the homepage of one of the larger publishers in Japan.

"I see you're starting to get a hang of this," Chisame commented.

Seeing the success of Kitsune's little trial, Naru now asks for her turn to use (Su's) computer, wanting to see whether she could find material that could help her to study for the Tokyo U Entrance exams. Kitsune yields to her best friend, and after a few minutes of tapping and backspacing on the keyboard, Naru presses enter to begin her search on trigonometry. To tell anyone that Naru was amazed and excited about this new tool that Chisame has introduced would be and understatement. Soon, with Chisame's help typing on the keyboard, Naru is beginning to browse through pages of English notes, history lessons, and practice exams. Eventually, Chisame finally grows tired of the whole thing, and tells Naru to learn how to type.

Finally, Motoko asks for her turn on the computer. Now, she isn't really looking for anything in particular, and begins to randomly click on links in the webpage.

"Hasegawa-san, this internet thing may be useful to Kitsune-san and Naru-san, but I don't know how this would be of any use to me."

"Well, it's not all serious stuff. Whenever I'm bored, I just surf the web, which is basically the same thing as what you're doing right now."

"How can it be possible that what I'm doing is supposed to be…fun? I really find nothing useful and entertaining about this."

A few links later, the screen mysteriously turns black, and the sound of a man and woman moaning can be heard on the sound system. Suddenly, upon seeing what appeared on the monitor a second later, all of the other girls in the room begin to blush and have their jaws dropped on the floor, while Chisame just stands on the side with her arms folded in a neutral expression, looking at Motoko.

"I…I knew it…that pervert…" Motoko muttered to herself before she was cut off.

"Congratulations," Chisame remarks in a low tone, "you have found what you've been looking for."

With the others looking on, and her face deep red in embarrassment, Motoko quickly stumbles her way across Su's room, before running off to her own room to hide from everybody for a while.


End file.
